NSA frowns at telecom infrastructure disruption – ALTON

The office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) has asked state governors to advice their revenue agencies against closing telecommunications base stations over revenue collection.

The NSA’s call boosts efforts by telecommunications operators and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to protect telecommunications infrastructure from arbitrary closure and vandalism, among others.

This is according to the chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo. Adebayo who disclosed this while speaking on telecom stakeholders’ expectations for 2017, stressed that the directive by NSA to the state governors showed the economic importance of telecommunications infrastructure which cannot be compared to the revenue consideration often adduced for shutting down of base stations.

Adebayo also called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to avail telecom operators foreign exchange for network expansion.

“Today, most of the operators are challenged in the area of securing foreign exchange for the importation of equipment for the upgrade of their network to deliver better service quality as well as in the launch of 4G LTE technology.

If operators can’t secure foreign exchange to import equipment for a network upgrade, it will jeopardize the efforts of the government to improve broadband penetration in line with her 30 percent broadband target by 2018,” the chairman ALTON said.

The NCC, he said, should revisit the issue of a data floor price to save and encourage small operators.

In his words: “Data floor price determination is meant for small operators, and not for big operators who will still survive with the present situation.

We are trying to avoid a situation where the CDMA operators died because of price war.

If data price is determined, it will encourage small operators in the sector. We need to look at it beyond public sentiment and emotions around it and revisit the issue for the growth of the industry.”

On his part, Olusola Teniola, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), also affirmed that the industry regulator needs to revisit the data price floor to determine the appropriate data pricing to ensure that investors have confidence in government policies in order for them to bring capital that will be used for infrastructure deployment required for broadband.

According to him, this is important in view of the 30 percent broadband target by the end of 2018.

Teniola said the industry sees government policies as creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive so that investors can bring funds to invest for the development of the sector.

He urged the regulator to ensure the conclusion of licensing of the infrastructure companies (Infracos) this quarter as the sector requires massive rollout of metro fibre optic to enable the industry to achieve the 30 percent broadband target.

“Without the Infracos there will be gaps in the rollout of superfast broadband, especially in the rural areas. We also need to look at spectrum allocation, as we have to begin to introduce programmes that will bring about spectrum trading that will ensure a level playing field for all operators to be part of the rollout of broadband services at affordable price,” he added.

He tasked stakeholders on the need to encourage the government to ensure that migration from analogue to digital broadcasting is concluded in 2017, adding that this will lead to freeing up of spectrum for telecom operators to deploy broadband services.