By Anna Borzello BBC, Lagos, Nigeria

Many Nigerians say they will boycott mobile phones

Nigerians have been urged to boycott their mobile phones on Friday in protest at the high cost of calls.

Many ordinary Nigerians have said they will follow the boycott called by the GSM Subscribers' and Phone Users' Association.

Ironically the organisers of the boycott have been spreading the word by GSM text messaging, taking advantage of a promotion by one of the phone companies, MTN, offering subscribers 100 free text messages.

Licences were first granted to mobile phone companies in Nigeria only two years ago and since then, Nigerians have seen a radical change in the way they go about their daily business.

I may well do that myself and join the protest Femi Fani Kayode Nigerian presidential advisor on public policy

In a nation full of wheeler-dealers and businessmen, the arrival of three mobile phone companies has made a real difference.

Before 2001, the only way that 130 million people had to communicate, was through less than half-a-million, often faulty, landlines.

Business people were forced to travel long distances to negotiate business deals and even to place orders - now all they have to do is use their mobile phones to negotiate and conclude deals.

Poor Service

But it's not all rosy - many Nigerians feel they are getting a raw deal.

They argue that the phone companies - South Africa's MTN, Zimbabwe's Econet and the state-owned Nitel - are charging too much and providing too poor a service.

Over the last few weeks a Nigerian consumer action group has spread the call through text messaging, newspaper articles and word of mouth to boycott mobile phones on 19 September.

Robbers occasionally raid base stations and steal generators

The mobile phone companies argue that it is not easy working in Nigeria - they say they have had to invest massively in a country with terrible infrastructure, erratic power, corrupt bureaucrats and a huge demand for their services.

"We have at least two base stations attacked every week by robbers. Recently a group of people knocked down the wall in one of our bay stations, drove in with a truck, put the two generators on the truck and drove away," says Afam Edozie, chief marketing and strategy officer at MTN.

"For the people in that community, who were without their GSM service for a while, of course it's inexcusable, but the reality is that we do face issues like this every single day," Mr Edozie says.

Dissatisfaction

Nigeria is a country where passions run high and it is not clear whether these will transform into action - after all, if traders switch off they risk losing their day's profits.

What is clear however is that dissatisfaction with the service goes to a very high level.

"I think that it is a very good initiative, within the confines of the law. It is a responsible cause to say, let us stage a day of protests to make our point to these companies," said Femi Fani Kayode, the presidential advisor on public affairs.

"I may also turn my phone off, by the way, but I am speaking as an individual now, not as a member of the government... I may well do that myself and join the protest," Mr Kayode added.