Perhaps a decent telephone system will eventually emerge, but for now telephoning in Nigeria is a nightmare.At Lagos port, the third crucial lifeline for business, a combination of a new import-inspection regime, a surge in demand and continuing building works has resulted in a line of containers stacked up four high and 16 wide, running for miles while they wait to be checked through.
But the average comrade is having a harder time finding paper let alone a PC, and anything resembling a decent telephone line is an expensive proposition.
"Until Internet polling gets a decent sampling frame, telephone surveys are necessary, and we can't exclude cellphones from telephone polling," said Martin Frankel, a professor of statistics at Baruch College.
Two decades ago an investment bank could buy a telephone and earn decent margins by quoting bond or currency prices to ignorant customers.
In Argentina, he scrambled to get the money he needed to buy himself decent food in prison and telephone cards, of which he might have as many as 30 in his pocket.
To be fair, some unions, such as the telephone workers', are seen as doing a decent job for their members.
As soon as the hour seemed decent, at 9 A.M. sharp, Jacqui picked up the telephone and dialled the switchboard at the University of St. Andrews, in Fife, Scotland.
"It's totally unacceptable that there's no decent accounting for their money," Senator Levin said in a telephone interview Saturday.
"Ryan's certainly hungry for it, and he's had a pretty decent year so far," said Jim Courier, the United States captain, in a telephone interview from France.
"Ryan's certainly hungry for it, and he's had a pretty decent year so far," said Jim Courier, the U.S. captain, in a telephone interview from France.
Mr. Gómez said the founder of Mad Decent, the disc jockey Thomas Pentz, who records under the name Diplo, telephoned Mr. Delgado and his former manager, last month.
