Nigeria - Decommissioning base stations because of environmental effects by Govt has impaired the delivery of services to customers

[this day] The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has lamented the decommissioning of base-stations by the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency, (NESREA) saying the action has affected the delivery of network services to subscribers within the coverage area of the based-stations.

NESREA had Monday sealed-off two base stations in Abuja belonging to MTN-Nigeria, following the expiration of a one year ultimatum issued to telecom operators to submit a comprehensive audit of the environmental impact assessment of their base stations.

The Chairman of the association, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, who led other members on a courtesy visit to the executive Vice-Chairman of National Communications Commission (NCC), in Abuja yesterday, said 'some of the disconnected base stations are primary stations, which are interconnected to other secondary stations. This hinders operators from providing network services and data information's to security operatives when needed,' he said.

Adebayo who bemoaned the multiple taxation and regulation of the industry as a major predicament of the telecoms operators, called on active stake holders to engage in genuine peer review mechanism between operators and regulators to actively shape the policy and regulatory frame work.

He attributed the high rate of tariffs to market forces, which according to him had seen Nigeria overtaking South Africa to become African continent's largest mobile market with over 80million subscriber lines.

He further explained that 'market forces is the main determinant of tariff, adding that no operator will want to out-price itself from the market.

However, Adebayo said there are areas yet to be uncovered, especially the rural areas.

He said the number of SIM cards in circulation cannot be equated to the number of active users as there are cases of individuals having more than one line'. .

The Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, while receiving the group said the commission has set up a Task Force within the commission to come up with short, medium and long term solutions on issue of quality of service by network providers.

"In the course of their work, we will have reasons to be interacting with service providers at various levels. I want to use this opportunity to seek your cooperation in ringing a lasting solution to the issue of quality of service in the various networks", he said.

Juwah, who promised to look into the complaints of ALTON, charged the telecoms operators to take measures to reduce service tariffs.

He told them that apart from ensuring that the consumers receive acceptable level of quality services, NCC want to ensure that these services are affordable.

"This is why we encourage the operators to do more in offering services at affordable rates. We want more competition at play, we want to see cost of such services like Short Message Services, SMS, to come lower than what the operators are offering today", he said.

The NCC boss used the ocassion to reiterate the commission's commitment to safeguarding the interest of consumers to enjoy quality telecoms services.

Telecoms - NCC Demands Lower Tariff