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The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have warned that the increasing cases of vandalism on telecoms infrastructure in the country could impact negatively in the quality of telephony services, slow down investments into the sector and force telcos to increase service charges.
ATCON’s president, Olusola Teniola, this week in Lagos, said rising cases of damages to the telecom facilities and the increasing cost of repairs, are inevitably passed onto the consumers.
Teniola said recent attacks on telecoms infrastructure belonging to MTN and Airtel in Damaturu, Yobe state by the Boko Haram, and similar cases of vandalism elsewhere in the country undermine investors’ confidence in the telecoms sector.
“They must be stopped now if the country really wants to go digital and achieve the 70 per cent broadband penetration target for 2025,” said a worried Teniola.
He argued that it has become imperative that all telecoms facilities in the country are deemed critical national assets and are protected by Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) law, so that Quality of Services (QoS) is not degraded beyond the point whereby citizens in the impacted areas are not able to make a voice call in order to carry out day-to-day businesses.
The Chairman, ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo, said government must make more efforts to secure lives and properties in the country.
He said the spate of attacks against telcos require government to activate a special protection architecture for the nation’s critical telecommunications infrastructure particularly in the North East.
“As an industry, we will continue to work with the authorities to minimize the effect of this wilful damage. We will continue to work with relevant authorities to minimize the impact,” said Adebayo.
