Since the dawn of the GSM era, a wide gap has unconsciously been maintained among phone users across the country. A gap that is not depicted in the expensive nature of phones or otherwise, acquired for use by individual users but the outright neglect of the larger number of the population who were not connected because they live in the rural communities.
So that, despite the huge successes recorded in the sector, the worry has remained on how the figure of success was arrived at. May be, the predominant private players in the sector influenced the rating. But what ever it is, people, more than ever before, can communicate now with ease, with one another, to relate together or get a business done and fast.
But how long can this situation tarry? On whom can we blame this an omission or commission?
What comfort can there be when a few people who live in rural areas, connected to the available lines, find it difficult to get smooth reception. What is commonly done is to mount private aluminum iron pipes used as poles, to trap reception to make phone calls successful. Frustrated by this trend, most people would go to the city, do their businesses and endeavour to make all their calls before returning to their villages.
No doubt, the Nigerian business terrain has continued to enjoy the multiple gains through communication that the GSM era has brought. To say the least of the comfort individual lives derive. The boost is seen as government determination to liberalize the sector. Truly it is so. But the rural communities should not be excluded in this liberalization.
Some Nigeria’s Telecommunications operators are taking several steps to commence community or rural telephony. This is welcome.The thinking is that the effort would be sustained and executed to transform the local economy as well as increase confidence among the people to live in such areas without the fear of being disconnected.
The attempt at getting telephony into the rural community appears to be coming in phases .This step, as articulated by MTN, is launch about 650 telephone boxes across five states including Borno and Imo states. Globacom is collaborating with Benue , Rivers and Bayelsa state governments to provide easy and cheap telephone services in rural areas.
Spokes person of MTN, Mrs Saidat Lawal-Mohammed said the project is targeted at the low income class that cannot afford to buy and maintain handsets. She agreed that telephony must be driven to every nook and cranny of the country, with discounted rates made available to them. The offer will be a pocket friendly rate and any call made to any network through the line will be only N22 per minute and 37 kobo per second.
The provision put in place is such that when a rural dweller buys a sim, he/she is allowed to access the service for as low as N150, and buys recharge cards for as little as N100 with voice and text messaging facility provided. At Imo State, an average of 130 boxes have be designated for distribution.
The spokes person for Globacom Mr Tunde Amunikoro said four rural communities would be provided with Telecommunication services in Benue State
Other telephone facilities would be installed together with requisite technical personnel deployed to those areas for effective provision of telecommunications services. Alternative electricity would be provided for the sites to ensure uninterrupted telecommunications signals and service quality in the areas.
Globacom has entered into partnership with Rivers and Bayelsa state governments to achieve the expected gains. The River state project is said to be part of the state’s sustainable development programme, brokered in association with oil companies and multilateral agencies.
It is believed that Globacom will deploy its superior 3G-Plus network and genuine concern for improving telecommunications for Nigerians. The assurance given is that the project will be replicated, periodically, until the whole states and indeed the rural communities are covered.
By Tamunobarabi Gogo Ibulubo,AfricaNews, Nigeria
