MTN Nigeria Limited mounts the gauntlet on behalf of the country’s telecom operators as it called on Nigeria’s law makers to formulate policies that will help secure telecommunications operations and infrastructure in the country.
Mr. Quasim Odunmbaku, who is MTN’s Regulatory Affairs Manager said some of the policies include those that will accord telecoms operations the legal status of critical national infrastructure and streamline the acquisition, ownership and retention of land for telecoms purposes.
Speaking at the Information Communication Technology and the Nigerian Environment in Lagos conference on Monday, Odunmbaku urged the Nigerian federal government to harmonise multiple regulations and taxation in the telecoms sector.
He called for the adoption of legislation that would discourage road construction companies from causing persistent damage to fibre networks.
He suggested the implementation of a number of policies by government that would address the erection of telecoms masts and infrastructure with particular regard to unambiguous local permit application processes.
According to him, operators and vendors are working on a number of initiatives to develop energy efficient networks and ensure that their customers use energy-efficient handsets.
He listed some of those initiatives to include the designing of low energy base station sites, deployment of base stations powered by renewable energy, implementation of infrastructure optimisation and sharing and reduction of mobile device life cycle emissions, through design and recycling.
According to him, MTN has spent over N12bn in acquiring generators to provide power for its over 4,798 base stations nationwide. It also spends N500m monthly on diesel and generator maintenance. This situation, he said, was worrisome and called for urgent solution.
“Recent degradation in national grid power supply has increased the pressure on generators, increased maintenance cost and outstripped local market capacity for supply of generators to operators,” he said.
He further said that the theft of generators, parts and diesel, as well as indiscriminate vandalisation of fibre optic cables and other network infrastructure were the causes of major network outages. According to him, an average of 50 sites are inaccessible per day on account of community issues making it difficult to address network maintenance needs.
He also said erosion had destroyed over 100 kilometers of fibre, particularly in the South East region, while recent new road construction and dualisation had resulted in relaying of 100 kilometers of fibre optic transmission infrastructure across the country.
Odunmbaku, who further lamented that the Nigerian telecoms industry posed serious challenges to operators, noted that operators were yet to build the critical mass of telephony towers and masts sufficient to meet the country‘s communications needs.
According him, the United Kingdom, with a smaller land mass and population, had 52,500 base stations by 2009, compared to Nigeria, which has a paltry 15, 000 base stations serving a population of 150 million and a teledensity of about 50 per cent.
IKECHUKWU OSODO in Lagos, Nigeria
