Airtel renews call for classification of telecom installations

l-r: Emeka Okpara, Director, Corporate Communications,
Osondu Nwokoro, Director, Regulatory Affairs and Special Projects and
Awadhesh Kalia, Chief Technical Officer, all of Airtel Nigeria

Telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria has renewed calls for the classifications of telecom installations as a national infrastructure.

The telco said this has become alarming following more recent attacks on telecom facilities by terrorist group, Boko Haram and flood that ravaged the country in recent times.

Director, Regulatory Affairs and Special Projects at Airtel, Mr. Osondu Nwokoro in paper at a media parley in Lagos, Tuesday, entitled ‘Recent Developments Impacting Telecommunications Operations and Quality of Service in Nigeria,’ said that these twin challenges, have resulted unfortunately to loss of lives and property.

Also, he said these challenges have led to loss of telecommunications equipment and an attendant degeneration of quality of service.

Airtel has, therefore, restated its call on the Federal Government to declare Telecoms Equipment as Critical National Infrastructure, just as it appealed to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to make the restoration of telecoms facilities in flooded areas a priority focus of its restoration plans.

Nwokoro who decried the menace of terror attacks on 53 installations, which has disrupted operations in 193 sites across the Northern part of Nigeria, added that the devastating impact of the flooding in the Middle-Belt, South and Delta States, has equally affected 32 installations and impacted on the overall operations of 41 sites across the region.

According to him, due to armed insurgency in parts of the North, the company’s network restoration and roll out of operations as well as the routine preventive 24hours maintenance of telecoms facilities have been totally stalled in Adamawa, Gombe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe and Kaduna States.

Similarly, he said, flooding in Lokoja, Asaba, Ugheli- Patani and Patani-Elele have adversely damaged telecoms installations and led to further loss of sites and fiber capacities.

Expectedly, these disasters have resulted in spiraling costs of maintenance in affected locations to thrice the normal rate, consequently leading to colossal financial losses and dipping revenues.

He explained that the impact of the disasters on telecoms operators is local, national and international in scope.

Nwokoro bemoaned the fact that the loss of capacity occasioned by these threats often affects quality of service delivery and customer experience leading to a drop in key performance indicators.

 Remmy Nweke

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!