How We Finally Got A Landline In Lagos, Nigeria

I have worked all my salaried jobs in the telecoms industry and until the last four weeks, I wouldn't have thought getting my company a landline would be a very tedious task.

The frustration started with identifying which landline companies are still in business. Almost all the ones I used to know have gone out of business or switched completely to another business line. I had to go to NCC's website to pull records of licensed landline providers in Nigeria. Still many of them are no longer existing.

I tried contacting the few still in business and most of them did not pick their inquiry/support lines. Some's didn't even connect/ring. And many had GSM lines as their support lines. Quite an irony for a landline company.

In the end, I was only able to reach ipNX. 

They provided us with a SIP line that has the following pattern 01-631XXXX. It requires you have a good/fast and always-on internet connection. And since we use wireless internet providers, I decided to go for a wireless SIP phone. Little did I know what trouble I would face getting a wireless SIP phone. 

I walked round computer village. The sellers all had just the wired SIP phones. They said that's what people mostly bought. I even bought something else I did not originally plan to buy but as it is with computer village, if you walk around too much you are certain to see something you'll suddenly need. Bought a N63,000 scanner (used HP Scanjet N6310) with automatic document feeder to make scanning our training participants feedback forms faster than using the scanner on our Cannon all-in-one printer. At a point I was exhausted and began considering buying the wired SIP phone and a means of connecting it to a wireless network. 

I ended up, via chain of referrals, buying one at Allen Avenue area from a vendor who was not nice with the price. Kept telling me to take it or leave it, no price negotiation.

It was worth the trouble. The ipNX line is impressively dependable and very clear (excellent voice call clarity). It doesn't receive SMS. At first, it was a trouble reconnecting after a disconnection (due to internet outage or power outage to the phone box) giving SIP 500 error for hours. I contacted the ipNX support and they reduced the reconnection retry seconds which solved the issue.

The SIP line only allows one connection instance. Meaning that you cannot connect more than one SIP phone to the line. You'll pay a one-time set up fee and an annual connection fee. The calls are billed at a per-minute rates. You recharge the line via Quickteller and it is a prepaid line.