Telecom now backbone of many sectors 

A major player in Nigerian telecommunications, Airtel Networks Plc, cried out in the last week of February. Vandals across the country are doing significant damage to Airtel’s infrastructure thus affecting quality of service to subscribers as well as revenues. It has gone on for too long and the Macedonian cry of Airtel was merely a reminder to all stakeholders on the imperative of making telecoms in Nigeria a critical national infrastructure.

Airtel called on the Federal Government to take up the responsibility to “urgently deal with the menace of vandalism, insecurity and insurgency otherwise the current spate of dropped calls experienced by some telecommunications consumers would continue”.  The operator said that Airtel alone recorded 1022 cases of fibre cuts between July 2018 and February 2020. Of these, 405 of the fibre cuts were the results of construction activities of road rehabilitation while 617 cases arose from vandalism.

The consequence is dropped calls, poor network quality, network congestion and poor user experience for subscribers nationwide.

There are specifics that Federal and State Governments can do. These include hastened approval process for right of way for fibre deployment, faster Environmental Impact Analysis procedures and approvals, and a reduction of repetitive taxes between the states and their local governments.

Security is another significant consideration. Sundry criminals vandalise, steal, bomb and destroy telecoms facilities and infrastructure. They come in the night or even in daylight, bring trucks and tow away generators that the telcos install to ensure power availability. They kill security men. They steal inverter batteries, generators, and fuel.

Players in the telecommunications sector have canvassed a bill in the National Assembly to make telecoms critical national infrastructure over the last four years. It is a surprise that such a bill of critical importance has not gained traction nor attracted the positive nod of the legislature.

As a recent report noted, “The challenge of fiber cuts (deliberate/sabotage and accidental) is making a mess of the effort and investments of telcos and the lives and businesses of Nigerians. The menace is becoming overwhelming. So much money is sunk into security, but still the fibre cuts continue unabated and the networks keep going down. The industry is currently sitting on over 600 fibre cuts. That is very bad for business.”

Quality of Service issues affect not just the industry but all players in the telecommunications ecosystem. In the ICT age, the scope of the telecoms ecosystem keeps growing daily. Almost every facet of economic activity is now interconnected to power and telecommunications.

Telecommunications now affects banking and financial operations, security services, business-to-business operations, aviation, healthcare and government. Major government agencies such as the West African Examinations Council, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the Immigration Services and the registry for drivers licenses all run portals that require efficient power and telecoms.

Power, data and telecommunications are the lifeblood of the internet-enabled economy across the world. We must get them right. In the case of telecommunications, the players have taken up such challenges like power that they can handle. Government must rise to support them with the others.

It is to the credit of the telecommunications sector that while they suffer from the paucity of services in power, security and governance, Nigeria manages to offer telecommunications services that compare well with other countries.

BusinessDay supports Airtel’s call. Telecommunications is now an integral part of the fabric of national life. Given the centrality of telecommunications, we cannot pay lip service to the imperative of protecting the sector. It is in the interest of the country to do so expeditiously.

We call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to ensure that the bill on making telecommunications a critical national infrastructure and protecting telecommunication assets get accelerated hearing and passage within the next six months.