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This paper reports a study of 286 Nigerians and their perception of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) customer service. The study became necessary as NITEL, which is a century‐old monopoly, began preparing for a telecommunications market that had suddenly been opened to competition by the Nigerian government. Study outcomes showed that Nigerians did not consider NITEL’s services to be “good”, citing several complaints such as poor customer service in general, frequent line breakdowns, high costs, and lengthy installation time. Furthermore, a majority indicated preference for an alternative service provider in a competitive environment. The paper provides pointers to how best for NITEL to strategize considering the above research report. The paper argues that NITEL has very few choices as it is likely to cease existence if it fails to address lingering customer service issues in the coming years within this new competitive environment.