The Nation Newspaper

Tag: telcos

  • How telcos compromise QoS, environment

    Telcos operating in Lagos State install fiber optic cables indiscriminately in gutters and on trees thereby, compromising quality of service (QoS), and creating environmental challenges such as flooding and even economic loss to the state government, the report of a study commissioned by the state government has shown.

    The state agency saddled with the responsibility of regulating infrastructure, the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulation Agency  (LASMIRA), had, early this year, consulted Critical Infrastructure Services Limited, to conduct a Utility Network Audit covering underground utilities network within the geographical boundaries of the state (affected persons) and ensure that all utility providers were compliant with statutory provisions with regard to all underground communication infrastructure.

    In the course of carrying out its investigations, it was discovered that  key areas such as Saka Tinubu St., Kofo Aboyimi St., Saka Tinubu/Akin Adesola St. junction., Ozumba Obamdiwe St., (junction)., Ajose Adeogun St., all on the Victoria Island, Lagos, were the worst hit by the indiscriminate installation of telecoms cables by telcos.

    Head of Compliance at Critical Infrastructure Services Ltd, Mrs. Gloria Ogunbiyi, who shed more light on the report explained that in the process of preparing the “As Built Database” of all underground facilities in the state, it was discovered that several carriers had built cables in a manner that they could even have avoided the payment of right of way (RoW) fees to the state government by installing cables in gutters and drainages.

    She advised telcos to ensure they provide quality services to customers by disconnecting the cables in gutters, drainages and trees, pay LASIMRA for RoW, install cables according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standards and utilising duct space provided by the state government.

    “This is critical because it has been discovered that the poor quality of service experienced by telecoms customers is due to telecoms network cables that are installed in these gutters and on trees.

    “These installations no doubt do not comply with the global standards set by ITU. Nigeria has experienced tremendous growth in the numbers of telecom subscribers, but this has not been matched by the provision of adequate internationally accepted networks to match this growth. There are constant dropped calls and slow internet service with key network Cables in gutters, drains and on trees,” Mrs Ogunbiyi said.

    According to her, if the trend is not contained, it will also impact negatively on the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), adding that state government, needed to provide health care, education, good roads and other dividends of democracy to residents of the state.

    She said: “While conducting the Utility Network Audit in several major streets and roads in Lagos on behalf of LASIMRA, Critical Infrastructure Services Ltd personnel saw key cables on trees and in several gutters and drains illegally installed by telecommunications operators.

    “It is amazing that at our stage of development, telcos will install cables on trees and gutters. These are short cuts, probably, to avoid the payment of RoW fees to Lagos State and no doubt are responsible for poor quality of service.

    “We should also see from the point of view that this practice by telcos does not only reduce IGR due to the state but also leads to blocked gutters and drainages caused by debris trapped by cables in these gutters and drains. These cables in gutters block the drainages and contribute to flooding in Lagos. The government has made efforts to provide cable ducts in all new roads but these operators have chosen to install their cables illegally on trees and in gutters. The economic impact of flooding is enormous to the residents of Lagos State.”

    She added that as good corporate citizens, telcos must support the state by paying the requisite fees for RoW.

    According to her, LASIMRA is focused on delivering its mandate to residents of the state and ensure that regulations are adhered to by all operators, lamenting that it had issued more than enough public notices before the exercises commenced.

    Mrs. Ogunbiyi said the final report will be submitted to LASMIRA to commence action on how to address the menace, and ensure that operators do not abuse the RoW issued them by the state government.

  • Report blames telcos for flooding, poor QoS

    Report blames telcos for flooding, poor QoS

    Telcos indiscriminately install fiber optic cables in gutters and on trees contributing to flooding, poor quality of service (QoS) and other economic loss to Lagos State, the report of a study commissioned by Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance Regulatory Agency (LASMIRA) on February 26 this year, has shown.

    The study which was carried out by Critical Infrastructure Services Limited (CISL), to conduct the Utility Network Audit covered the underground utilities network within the geographical boundaries of the state was ascertain if all utilities providers complied with statutory provisions with regard to all underground communication infrastructures.

    The CEO of CISL, Mr. Chukwudi Obike Okpara, said in the process of preparing the “As Built Database” of all underground facilities in the state, it was discovered that telcos had a free ride in the state and could have even avoided the payment of right of way (RoW) to LASIMRA by installing their cables in gutters and drainages.

    During investigation, it was discovered that  key areas such as, Saka Tinubu St, KofoAboyimi St, Saka Tinubu/Akin Adesola St junction, Ozumba Obamdiwe St, (junction), Ajose Adeogun St, all on Victoria Island, Lagos, were worst hit by the indiscriminate installation of cables.

  • TELCOS terrorism

    Have you ever been on the highway driving home after a dog’s day at work and your phone rings? You peek at it. It’s an unknown number and you ignore it. It rings off and rings again. You take another look; again an unknown number but a rather peculiar one. It’s a ‘mature’ number as a friend of Hardball would term it: In the sense that it belongs to the first or second generation series of numbers.

    And it keeps ringing relentlessly as if you are about to miss a major job if you ignored it. You reach out and manage to pick it and put it on speaker; disregarding the traffic code against fiddling with the phone while driving. And what do you get? A recording – someone desperately trying to sell you something.

    Gosh! Your brains literally explodes in ire and you reach out quickly to shut down the irritant; you miss with the first jab and the second … your car swerves a little. You ignore the phone; reclaim your wheels as the promo continues to rant searingly running its full course. Now you are probably boiling over and cursing furiously under your breath. You feel so thoroughly ravaged and your blood pressure may have gone up one notch.

    There are as many scenarios as there are GSM phone users in Nigeria. The telecommunications companies have grown from feeding frenzy on us their helpless game to the realms of terrorism. When this ravenously bad habit started about four years ago, it was enough to stay with those text-and-win promos.

    You must remember that crazy era when some of the telcos offered SUVs and millions of naira to be won if you recharged. That epoch ended when one of the firms lost its mind and offered us an aeroplane. RECHARGE-AND-WIN-AN-AEROPLANE was the promo that ‘killed’ all promos. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) eventually got shame-faced enough to snap from its slumber and tried to moderate the madness.

    No sleek-fingered telco has offered us a Concorde jet ever since but they have not stopped pecking at us like vultures upon a dying game. Hardball chose to keep his treasure of short messages from his service providers and in just one month of August, he got no fewer than 100 messages from each of the three lines he uses. The barrage of messages is a curious admixture of picking my pockets and obtaining by all manner of unscrupulous guises.

    Here are a few examples: Dateline August 11, 2016, time 20:33: Dear customer, you have successfully subscribed to MTNsports EPL and N50.00 deducted from your account. Your service will be renewed on 2016-08-18. To cancel, text stop EPL to 5836. Enjoy!

    One never remembered subscribing to the above and even if perchance I had been tricked into it as they are wont to do these days, I never received one word of information on the EPL game.

    But every week one gets the notification for renewal and deduction of N50.00. This is just one example. There are so many more from all the firms.

    If this is not criminality bordering on terrorism, then what is it?

  • Telcos kick against communications service tax

    Major telecoms firms in the country have kicked against a bill seeking to introduce Communications Service Tax, arguing that such a tax will further suffocate subscribers, stall the deployment of infrastructure, frustrate the achievement of government’s National Broadband Plan, and make the government more unpopular.

    The major carriers– MTN, Airtel, Glo, Etisalat and others- acting under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said instead of overtaxing the already impoverished subscribers, a good place to start will be to review and cut down the cost of governance at all levels, lamenting that the sheer magnitude of the effect of the law will be unimaginable.

    “Our opinion is that the introduction and collection of the tax without the exclusion of the applicability of the Value Added Tax (VAT) (which was introduced by the Value Added Tax Act and is also applicable to services rendered by service providers in the telecoms sector) will amount to double taxation as the proposed tax is an additional tax on communication services rendered to the same end users who already pay a five percent tax as VAT.

    “Also, the administration of this tax regime as proposed will be cumbersome and impractical; we must correct this general notion that service providers can absolve any tax without considering the capital and operational cost to the service providers,” the telcos said.

    On the challenge of affordability in connecting the unconnected, the carriers said high consumer taxes on communication services would impact negatively on economic and broadband development.  “Today the country has more than 83 million unique subscribers, accounting for 45 per cent of the population. As well as providing access to financial services, education and healthcare to millions of citizens, many for the first time, telecoms has also played a critical role in reducing transportation, communication and transaction costs.  Pushing up the cost to consumers, this tax will inevitably adversely impact the adoption of broadband affordability, which is a key challenge in connecting the unconnected

    The operators say the tax will have adverse impact on telecom infrastructural development as it will negatively impacting take-up of consumer services and decline industry revenues.   The proposed tax will reduce the incentive for telecom operators to invest in the infrastructure improvements that are essential to improve and expand mobile/broadband connectivity across Nigeria; telecom industry investment in Nigeria is already constrained by multiple taxation and may not have room to contain the tax, the carriers said.

    According to the group, there are 26 different taxes and fees levied on mobile operators and consumers, including national and local taxes on revenues, businesses and business sites as well as regulatory fees such as spectrum and permits fees.

    Broadband penetration remains low at less than 10 per cent, with the government setting a target of 30per cent by 2018.  There is more ground to cover as only less than 10per cent of telecom over 160 million subscribers can access broadband.  The Nigeria Broadband market opportunity is huge in terms of distribution and penetration, the group said.

    According to statistics from the International Telecoms Union (ITU), despite the fact that Nigeria has 45 million internet users, the highest online population in Africa, only nine per cent or about 14.5 million are actually internet subscribers. Opportunity exists for over 100 million potential internet users.

    “Internet-to-Home Penetration is 4.6 per cent while broadband penetration is at a mere six per cent; with a youthful population and growing middle class, the market holds great potential.

    “According to the World Bank, in developing economies such as Nigeria, every 10 per cent increase in broadband subscriber penetration accelerates economic growth by 1.38 per cent in the long term. Increasing taxation levels could jeopardise the contribution of the industry towards economic growth and prevent the spread of broadband that would enable Nigeria to become a modern knowledge-based economy,” ALTON said, warning that the introduction of the CST law without the harmonisation of other extant laws is likely to make the government unpopular, as it will put pressure on the tax system and make it unattractive to investors and be counter-productive for targets on broadband penetration.

  • Cold calls, SMS: telcos get NCC’s yellow card

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has expressed dissatisfaction with the level of compliance to its ‘direction’ on the activation of Do-Not-Disturb (DND) facility which gives subscribers the freedom to choose the messages they receive.

    It lamented that in spite of the direction, it was still inundated with complaints by subscribers of continuing operators’ harassment through unsolicited text messages and cold calls.

    Its Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, has therefore issued final warning to the telcos on the issue, saying the commission would not hesitate to apply the rules if defiance persisted.

    The direction issued to industry operators to activate the 2442 DND Short Code took effect from July, 1this year.

    Ojobo said the directive mandated the operators to take immediate action to allow the subscribers take informed but independent decisions on what messages to receive from the networks.

    He observed that industry compliance doesn’t seem to have matched the seriousness of the direction, thus compelling the Commission to issue a final warning to the operators.

    According to him, the direction took into cognisance the broad range of services, which include: banking/insurance/financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods and automobiles, communication/ broadcasting/ entertainment/ IT, tourism and /leisure, sports, religion (Christianity, Islam, others), and directed the operators to give the necessary instructions and clarifications that will enable subscribers subscribe to a particular service/services/none at all.

    “In fact, a full DND which is SMS ‘STOP” to 2442 does not allow the subscriber to receive any unsolicited messages from the operators at all,” he said adding that details of others include SMS 1 for receiving SMS relating to Banking/Insurance/ Financial Products to 2442; SMS 2 for receiving SMS relating to Real estate to 2442; SMS 3 for receiving SMS relating to Education to 2442; SMS 4 for receiving SMS relating to Health to 2442; SMS 5 for receiving SMS relating to Consumer Goods and Automobiles, to 2442; SMS 6 for receiving SMS relating to Communication/ Broadcasting/ Entertainment/ IT, to 2442; SMS 7 for receiving SMS relating to Tourism and Leisure to 2442; SMS 8 for receiving SMS relating to Sports to 2442; and SMS 9 for receiving SMS relating to Religion to 2442.

    Ojobo called on the service providers to immediately comply with the Direction as further complaints from the subscribers would be taken as serious infractions to a major regulatory intervention by the Commission

  • Minister, LCCI, telcos condemn Communication Tax Bill

    Minister, LCCI, telcos condemn Communication Tax Bill

    Communications Tehnology Minister,  Adebyo Shittu yesterday in Lagos joined other stakeholders in condemning the Communication Tax Bill pending before the National Assembly, warning that it is capable of threatening the acheivement of the 30 per cent broadband penetration level set by the National Broadband Plan of the Federal Government.

    Shittu, who delivered the keynote address at a forum organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said the sector has created jobs with its multiplier effect on other sectors of the economy including e-commerce and online shops.

    He said the proposed bill has been criticised by experts who argue that over 60 million Nigerians would be unable to afford basic broadband connection.

    He argued that if the country must move from the current 10 per cent broadband penetration level, there is need to incentivise the populace by through access to low cost data subscription.

    Shittu also said the bill was discriminatory because it targeted only the communication industry to the exclusion of other sectors of the economy.

    He said rather than overtax an already overburdened industry, there is need for government to stimulate the economy and encourage the adoption of communication service by both the rich and poor. The minister said though the government needed money to fund projects, the expected earnings of N20 billion per month from the proposed bill may not be in the interest of the generality of the populace.

    Also, the LCCI and telcos took their turn to highlight the dangers the proposed tax would have on the economy.

    Chairman, LCCI, Communication Law and Taxation Committee, Mr. Bimbo Atitola said the bill, if passed into law, will adversely affect the economy, adding that it could easily be challenged in court as operators will see it as double taxation and illegal since they are already paying value added tax (VAT).

    He cited the  case between Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) and Eko Hotel where the court held that sales tax amounted to double taxation.

    He said the bill will further compromise third party privacy as safety of data cannot be guaranteed. Atitola advised that additional costs will lead to increase in cost of production, affect consumer behaviour and negate the principle of neutrality. The LCCI committee chairman further said countries with higher taxes have been known to have lower broadband penetration which is a disincentive to foreign direct investment (FDI).

    He urged the National Assembly to suspend the bill or exempt  telcos as they are currently over-taxed. He also added that it was ill-timed and that if it must be passed into law,  the tax should be reduced to below five per cent. In his comparative analysis, he said Cameroon was considering 0 per cent VAT on all ICT products including handsets and computers while Kenya recently removed taxes on all telecoms equipment in a bid to drive growth.

    President, Association of   Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Olushola Teniola also called for the discontinuance of debate on the bill as it would not add any value to the economy.

    He said the telcos are currently made to pay over 15 taxes either directly or indirectly not minding the fact that they have contributed enormously to the growth of the economy. “The perceived benefits of the tax will erode the gains; there will be decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI) and its implementation would lead to increase in unemployment,” Teniola warned.

  • Disruptive technologies challenge telcos, says NCC

    Disruptive technologies challenge telcos, says NCC

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said the evolution of the telecoms industry, which has led to the emergence of disruptive technologies, is capable of threatening traditional telephony, short message services (SMS) and the bottomline.

    Speaking on the Role of Disruptive Technologies in Catapulting Africa’s GDP in Lagos, at an event tagged: NITEC 2016,  NCC’s  Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said a 2013 report by McKinsey co- titled: Disruptive Technologies: Advances that Will Transform Life and Global Economy, identified 12 items in the gallery of disruptive technologies. These include mobile internet; internet of things (IoT); cloud; advanced robotics; autonomous vehicles; renewable energy storage and others. Some of them fall under the genre of over-the-top (OTT) services, which are carried over the networks, delivering value to customers.

    According to him, OTTs offer service without any carrier service provider being involved in planning, selling, provisioning or servicing them, implying that traditional telcos cannot directly earn revenue from such services.

    He said: “These OTT services include services such as internet protocol (IT) telephony, live (video) streaming and other social media applications.

    “Many traditional service providers are of the opinion that traditional telephony and SMS revenues are under threat from newer IP based alternatives such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype, Viber, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and others. Similarly, third party web content and social networking companies such as Google and Facebook are increasingly generating huge revenues and driving high levels of data, which ride on the broadband network of traditional network operators even if the latter still have all the money to upgrade their networks to accommodate the OTT intruders.”

    Globally, he added,  there is a continuing surge in growth, meaning that the industry must be heading towards a positive direction.

    According to him, a well implemented ICT agenda, which incubates new ideas, will take the industry to the next level.

    He said: “Several reasons are responsible for this optimism. The curators of some of these technologies, aptly described as disruptive, are the youths. The continent and Nigeria in particular, has a rambunctious gathering of youths, they are bold, audacious and creative.

    “The United Nations (UN) 2015 Population Facts say there were 226 million youths between the ages 15 and 24 in Africa. The figure does not include ages 25 to 45. Wikipedia records 33,625,424 for ages between 18 and 35 for Nigeria alone, while Country Meter has the following age structure: 75,584,144-young people under 15 years; 103,288,688-between the ages of 15 and 64 and 5,762,467-above the ages of 64, also for Nigeria. What this means is that quite a number of figures in the demography fall into the age of creativity and audacity,” Ojobo said.

    He said in spite of the hermetic strictures created by legacy failure in governance, challenging human capital development environment and the inability of African leaders to address the adverse factors that affect their ecosystem, African youths will always stand their own because of their resilience and the elastic ambition to dream and dare the unknown.

  • NCC to telcos: implement corporate governance code or risk sanction

    NCC to telcos: implement corporate governance code or risk sanction

    The regulator of the telecoms sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said after giving the telcos more than two years to voluntarily embrace the Corporate Governance Code for the industry, the era of voluntary compliance will now give way to mandatory enforcement.

    Speaking yesterday at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel & Towers, venue of what the regulator tagged: Corporate governance forum: Review of the industry code, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Prof GarbaDambatta, said the Code was largely declaratory in nature and implementation was initially voluntary across the industry thus leading to violations.

    He said enforcement of regulatory stipulation is a last resort, warning that once “you are operating in a market, the rule of engagement must be respected”.

    He said the liberalisation of the telecoms industry opened investment opportunities for both local and foreign companies, contributing significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    He said to illustrate this contribution, in contrast to the economy as a whole which contracted to -0.36 per cent in the first quarter of this year, the telecoms sector contributed, in progressive and real terms, about 8.83 per cent to the GDP in the same period, adding that this represents an increase of 0.5 per cent, relative to the growth in the last quarter of last year.

    “Similarly, apart from attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in excess of $38 billion and reflating the economy, the telecoms value chain (formal and informal) continues to create a significant number of job opportunities for our teeming youths. Other positive spin-offs include increasing local content and rising income per capita/per head for employees in the sector,” he said.

    According to Dambatta, in recognition of the need to sustain the phenomenal success recorded in the industry and replicate the lessons learnt in other sectors that had gone through the “Boom and Bust” cycle, the Commission in 2012 set up a multi-stakeholder Corporate Governance Working Group (CGWG) with membership drawn from across the Nigerian telecoms industry, the Commission and Corporate Governance practitioners. The mandate of the Group, he said, was to determine the industry’s corporate governance needs and the best approach to be adopted in addressing them, adding that the CGWG developed the Code of Corporate Governance for the telecoms industry, which was published in 2014.

    Meanwhile, speaking yesterday on the sideline of the forum, Communications Technology Minister, Adebayo Shittu insisted that reducing the fine imposed on MTN over regulatory infractions was legal and in the interest of the country.

  • Telcos to axe more jobs over forex, falling revenue

    More workers in the telecoms industry may soon be sacked if the issue of foreign exchange (forex) and other policy issues inhibiting growth and capacity expansion in the industry are not addressed, the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has warned. .

    Its President, Olusola Teniola, who gave the warning when he led members of the association’s Executive Council on a working visit to the General Manager, Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Authority (LASIMIRA), Babajide Odekunle, at the weekend in Lagos, lamented that revenues from voice calls have declined sharply while data that was supposed to have provided alternative revenue stream is being challenged by a myriad of factors including operating cost.

    He lamented that the free fall in the value of the naira against the dollar has ensured that roll-out of new base transmission station (BTS) and expansion of existing capacity remained impossible.

    He said: “We want to appreciate the professional way LASIMRA has been regulating the industry; we particularly thank the new management of LASIMRA for sustaining the tradition of excellence in the organisation. But in spite of these positive developments, our association has some concerns which include unstable forex rates. The free fall of the naira against the dollar has constituted a serious source of worry to our sector and as a matter of fact our member companies have tried to make sure that Lagosians and Nigerians as a whole have access to qualitative communications service but the continuous depreciation of the naira is not encouraging from a capital expenditure (capex) roll out perspective.”

    “Again, revenue derived from voice is seriously being challenged. To worsen the situation as an industry, the telecommu-nication companies are barely making any money from voice due to considerable drop rate in average revenue per user (ARPU). The direct implication of this is that the revenue that is generated from data is now being challenged by the cost of operating the business which is increasing on a daily basis and may lead to further laying-off of staff.”

    Speaking on the unified duct system proposal, he said the telcos were nervous about the implications of the introduction of this system in place of the right of way (RoW) in view of the work already achieved in setting a N500/ linear meter rate with Lagos State government.

    “Our members would like to be fully engaged in the process to avoid prohibitive charges creeping back in. Generally, our request is for a further slash in telecoms levies by over 60 per cent and charges on RoWs by 95 per cent. This would enable our members to build more base stations and accelerate the roll out of much needed fibre which is ICT passive infrastructure for the good of all Lagosians and by extension, Nigerians,” Teniola said.

    He expressed the delight of the telcos over the positive development in the industry which has been identified as the fastest growing sector of the Nigerian economy and which currently contributes more than eight per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). “This success is not without the slash in telecoms levies by over 40 per cent and charges on RoWs by 90 per cent which LASIMRA supported and we are pleased to report some sort of relief to our members that are operating in Lagos State,” he said.

  • NCC’s proposed spectrum licensing pricing high, say telcos

    NCC’s proposed spectrum licensing pricing high, say telcos

    Telcos have said the pricing for the proposed licensing of spectrum in the new 38 gigahertz (GHz) and 42 GHz spectrum bands by the Nigerian Communications (NCC) is too high and does not take into account the realities in the country.

    They said the countries the pricing was benchmarked against were all matured telecoms markets, adding that the indexes do not speak to current market situation in the country.

    Speaking yesterday during the stakeholders consultative forum organised by the NCC on licensing of 38GHz, 42GHz and replanning of 23GHz spectrum at Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers, an official of Airtel, Luckky Ubani said the NCC  should take a second look at the pricing model to reflect what is happening in the country.

    But the NCC said it is not re-inventing the wheel, adding that its pricing was arrived at after evaluating what is happening in other jurisdictions.

    Its Deputy Director, Spectrum Administration Department, O. A. Yusuf said Nigeria has a huge population, stressing that the Commission is not opposed to any proposal on lowering the price for the spectrum. He said the Commission arrived at the pricing after a careful study of the pricing models in countries such as United States (U.S), United Kingdom, South Africa, Netherlands and Canada, arguing that the pricing was neither too low nor too high as it was in the medium level.

    Stakeholders agreed that written submissions be made to the NCC in four weeks time after which the proposal shall be deemed to have been approved by all.

    Speaking on the occasion, NCC CEO, Prof Umar Dambatta said the forum was organised because of the Commission’s believe that its actions must be guided by decisions that take cognisance of the inputs from the stakeholders.