Over 50,000 cases of major destruction to telecom infrastructure and facilities have been reported across the country in the past five years, it was gathered at the weekend.
Most of these vandalism cases have a calamitous impact on the quality of services (QoS) across the country.
While some infrastructure destructions are wilful with a view to profit, others are not but due largely to poor rural and urban planning. It’s not uncommon for vandals to break into base transceiver stations (BTS) to steal batteries, solar panels and other accessories used to power the generating sets of the (BTS) as the operators depend largely on self-generation to power the BTS.
In other cases, infrastructures such as optic fibre cables (OFCs) are also unintentionally damaged due to road construction. Sometimes too, fibres are destroyed when an operator inadvertently digs out the fibre of another operator during the laying of its OFC. This has largely reduced due to the collaborations between the state government and the telecoms operators.
Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has expressed worry over how these incidents have continued to degrade the QoS and Quality of Experience (QoE) of consumers. He called for concerted efforts by the members of the public, and security agencies, to halt the ugly development.
He lamented that the negative impacts of incessant vandalism of telecom equipment, evidenced in fibre cuts, theft of telecom facilities like generators at sites, vandalism of base stations, among other vices, have become a major burden on the service providers, while telecom consumers have continued to suffer unwarranted disruptions of their hard-earned services.
“The impact of vandalism of infrastructure is felt by all in the QoS rendered as it results in increasing drop calls, data and Internet connectivity disruptions, aborted and undelivered short messaging services (SMS), as well as countless failed calls,” he said.
The NCC‘s Chief Executive Officer said considering the well-known fact that the ability to connect and communicate is fundamental to human existence, improvement in business processes, government services, education, as well as social and family networking through seamless connections, every community should get involved in protecting the critical infrastructure that makes these services possible.
“Therefore, as a community, you are expected to report cases of vandalism of telecoms infrastructure to the nearest law enforcement agencies such as the Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and also share adequate information received from NCC with your family, friends, and neighbours.
“We believe, with your cooperation as critical stakeholders in the telecoms sector, we can all work with the law enforcement authorities in protecting telecom infrastructure in your community,” Danbatta stated to underscore the role of the communities in protecting critical national assets.
Represented by Head, Corporate Communications Unit of the Commission, Mrs. Nnena Ukoha, the NCC helmsman spoke at the 2022 edition of Youth Civil Society and Stakeholders Summit (YCSSS) held at the Army Resource Centre, Abuja, at the weekend.