Telecoms Subscribers face nightmare

Nigerians and businesses, particularly in the North, are in for tougher times following recent coordinated attacks by Boko Haram that damaged several telecoms infrastructure in the North

Nothing would gladden the heart of Uthman Garba, director general, DG, Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, more than an urgent intervention by the federal government to stop the Boko Haram insurgence in the northern part of the country. “Businesses are suffering in the North and we desperately need government to restore peace to the region. My colleagues in the North-east and the North-west are telling unpalatable stories about the collapse of their businesses. The destruction of communication infrastructure would further worsen it,” he lamented.

Garba, who was reacting to last week’s coordinated attacks on telecoms installations in some states in the North by the violent religious sect, told the magazine that the attack which damaged about 30 Transceiver Base Stations, BTS, belonging to several telecoms operators has taken a heavy toll on subscribers and businesses. “The unfortunate development has adversely affected businesses in the North because business is about communication; communication reduces man-hour and makes business less stressful,” he said, adding that “it would also affect the labour market because many people in the telecom business would be thrown out of jobs.”

Recently, a series of premeditated bomb attacks, unprecedented in the telecoms industry, reduced several critical telecoms installations in the northern part of Nigeria to rubble. Operators whose facilities were affected by the attack carried out by the Boko Haram terrorist group include MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Glo, Visafone, Helios Tower and IHS Nigeria. The facilities are located in Potiskum and Damaturu in Yobe State; Sharada in Kano State; Mainok Village in Borno State; Bauchi State; and Gombe State. The militant Islamic sect, in carrying out the attacks, made good their earlier threat to cause immense damage to telecoms operators’ facilities for allegedly providing information that had helped security agencies track its members. “We decided to launch attacks on masts of mobile telecom operators as a result of the assistance they offer security agents,” an email statement from Abu Qaqa, its spokesman, said. This information helps Nigerian security forces “in arresting our brethren,” he added.

According to Garba, even though the federal government has promised to provide security for telecom masts and other infrastructure, it should not stop at that; those behind the destruction should be talked to so that lasting solution can be found. However, while his call for a lasting solution for now appears to be a tall order, the latest attack has left sour taste in the mouths of operators, subscribers and the industry in general. For instance, subscribers, especially those in the North, are already feeling the impact of the attack as the quality of telecoms services in the affected states immediately took a downturn following severe limitation on the interconnection of telecoms infrastructure. It was also extremely difficult for most subscribers in the southern part of the country who have since been groaning over poor quality of services to call their friends, family members and business partners in the North on their mobile phones.

Gbenga Adebayo, president, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ATCON, had in the wake of the attack warned subscribers of the impending nationwide “consequential congestion” as a result of the bombings. Adebayo explained that some of the damaged base stations are hubs that provide services to other base stations in the region. “If anything happens to a hub, all the subscribers in the vicinity will be adversely affected.” Other experts also expressed fears that millions of subscribers in the northern states of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe and Kano may have to contend with network outages or very poor services for the next six months as it could take months before the affected base stations could be fixed and reconnected to the networks because of the magnitude of the attack.

Subscribers are not the only ones counting their loses. Banking and financial services that run on the platform of the mobile network operators will also suffer. As Bankole Falade, regulatory affairs manager, MTN Nigeria, disclosed, the effect of the vandalisation of the base stations and fibre optic cables will also be felt by the banking industry as bank customers will find it difficult to make withdrawals at the automated teller machines, ATMs.

Telecoms subscribers, businessmen, banks and other service providers will have to cope without telecoms services for the next six months. According to Gbenga Onakomaiya, executive director, commercial and business development, IHS, one of the infrastructure providers whose base stations were affected by the bombings, explained that repairs could take six months as some of the equipment will have to be imported. “In our case we can commence restoration immediately as we have access to take equipment from our warehouse and restore between one and two months, depending on the nature of damage. However, security concerns and safety of our personnel is of utmost concern, as another attempt was made on another site on Saturday morning (September 9),” he said. According to him, his company has lost three base stations so far.

For the telecoms operators, the attack was also a blow below the belt, considering the fact that for long, they have been agonising over several infrastructure challenges that have made it almost impossible for them to perform optimally and provide quality services to Nigerians. Some of the challenges include inadequate power supply, vandalisation of telecoms infrastructure and closure of base stations by unauthorised government officials and agents, among others. MTN recently raised the alarm, claiming that it experiences more than 70 cuts on its fibre network nationwide monthly due to violent attacks on its facilities. Other operators such as Glo, Airtel, Etisalat, including CDMA operators, have also complained about similar wilful damage and theft at their installations across the country, a development which they argue has serious implications for the delivery of world-class telecoms services to Nigerians.

Apart from the vandalisation of telecoms installations, Nigeria’s wide telecoms infrastructure supply gap, experts say, is also largely responsible for the poor Quality of Service, QoS, currently offered to Nigerians by the networks. For instance, a recent survey pegged the total number of base stations in Nigeria at 17,000 serving an estimated 160 million Nigerians compared to 66,000 based stations that service about 62 million people in Britain. The same survey revealed that Nigeria will require about N1.29 trillion to address tower and base station shortage. While operators and consumers are still grappling with the challenges thrown up by the acute infrastructure gap in the sector, the attacks on base stations may have further widened the gap.

The attacks also have grave implications for the telecoms industry and the economy generally. For an industry acknowledged as Africa’s most vibrant, competitive and fastest-growing telecoms market, hitting over 100 million subscriber lines over a little more than a decade, the development is seen by many as a disincentive to further growth and investments. Adebayo fears that the attack poses a great setback for local and Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, inflows into the nation’s telecoms sector.

Recently, Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, disclosed that the expansion of telecoms facilities in the country had increased the inflow of FDI into the sector from $18 billion in 2009 to $25 billion at the last count. The present concern is that telecoms operators may now be reluctant to invest more in extending services to places not yet covered by their networks, especially in the northern parts of the country, because of the rising insecurity in the area.

Whether or not operators do so, consumers, particularly those in the North, will in the coming months contend with service disruptions and businesses will also suffer on account of the attacks