By 
GSM operators under their umbrella body, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have raised alarm over plans by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to pull down 7,000 telecom masts and towers within airport axis across the country.
The NCAA has accused telecom operators of failing to obtain the statutory Aviation Height Clearance (AHC).
In a recent statement, the NCAA announced plans to begin to pull down masts and towers of GSM operators adding that: “NCAA is compelled to recourse to this line of action when the telecommunication providers have blatantly failed to obtain the statutory Aviation Height Clearance (AHC). Without Aviation Height Clearance, all these masts and towers constitute danger to safety of air navigation.”
But ALTON has, in turn, accused the aviation agency of trying to extort its members and has asked stakeholders, particularly the telecom regulator: Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the ministry of communications to intervene, warning that over 70% of Nigeria’s 145 million subscribers may be disconnected should the NCAA carry out its threat.
The telecommunications industry is irked by the NCAA’s threat and sees it as predatory with nothing to do with safety.
The NCAA is asking for AHC fee of N100, 000 per mast and tower which ALTON considers to be “offensively predatory.”
“Our worry is that the NCAA is driven not by safety reasons. The motivation is money as everyone sees telecommunication operators as cash cows to be milked to death,” said Chairman of ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo.
NCAA’s is undermining the country’s potential to attract investors and is acting grossly against the government policy of promoting ease of doing business in Nigeria, said President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON),Olusola Teniola.
One operator told IT Edge News that the dispute is the refusal of telecom operators to pay the “prohibitive and predatory” fee for obtaining the Aviation Height Clearance, increased from N10, 000 monthly to N600, 000. Seeing that it was impossible for GSM networks to pay that amount, the NCAA grudgingly reduced it to N100, 000 per month for every mast and tower. This has still not gone well with operators who have “refused to pay the ‘predatory fee.’
The implication is that the NCAA could simply raked in billions of naira from one operator with multiple masts and towers within airport areas across the country.
“The NCAA wants to make billions from non-aviation sector in a way that is both laughable and criminal,” said one angry operator in Lagos.
