Danbatta condemns attacks on infrastructure

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta has condemned the unwarranted cutting of fiber cables and unending community attack on telecommunications infrastructure, which he attributed as some of the factors responsible for poor quality of services in the country.

Danbatta, who was a guest on the popular Channels TV programmes ‘Sunrise Daily’ which was monitored in Lagos, said, though the previously drop call rates being experienced by telecom consumers is not acceptable, findings by the Commission shows that fiber cut and community issues are largely responsible for the poor quality of networks.

“Based on the measurement of quality of service we have conducted, the call drop rate is not acceptable; the call success rate is equally not encouraging. But our findings also show that there are technical and non-technical factors responsible for the poor quality of networks. These factors include fiber cut, community issues and unsteady electricity supply,” Danbatta added.

The electricity supply, according to him is closely tied to the quality of service as all the network operators depend on electricity supply on a daily basis, adding that though they do depend also on generating power on their own, they still have challenges of diesel most of the times.

He said Commission has advised the network operators to look for alternative means which include resorting to solar energy to powering their base stations.
He noted that some of such alternative means also requires additional investment, but that will eventually be a solution to lack of electricity supply.