MOBILE Network Operators have appealed to the Federal Government for help in resolving the country’s telecommunications problems.
According to them, multiple taxation, fiber cuts, unstable power, supply, foreign exchange scarcity, theft of telecoms equipment, and insecurity, are among the challenges.
The appeal was made during a weeklong exercise in Lagos, in which a delegation of the Nigerian Communications Commission’s top management, led by its Executive Commission, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, visited the headquarters of MNOs to inspect their technical infrastructure and other facilities.
The purpose of the visits, according to the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, was to get first-hand information about MNO operations and verify challenges they may be facing in order tomake recommendations to appropriate stakeholders on how to address them.
The inspection, it said, was part of the NCC’s efforts to ensure operational efficiency and regulatory framework improvement in order to meet the goals of the national digital economy and other Federal Government policy initiatives.
The statement also revealed that the commission visited Airtel, 9Mobile, Globacom, MTN and Spetranet.
“MNOs listed areas where increased and more decisive interventions are needed from the commission to include the issues of wilful and inadvertent fibre cuts; theft of telecoms equipment; non-availability and inadequacy of, as well as unstable power supply; multiple taxation and regulations across all the three tiers of government; damages caused undersea cables by marine transportation systems; scarcity and difficulty in accessing foreign exchange; as well as insecurity which has impeded network rollout, especially in some parts of the country,” it said.
