Major providers of mobile telephony in the country have threatened to withdraw their services from the North.
They hinged their threat on the spate of attacks on base stations which has made them to lose a whopping N1.03bn.
The umbrella body of the telecoms
operators, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of
Nigeria, on Thursday said its members were losing too much to the
development and may close shop if it became too dangerous to operate in
the region.
The major GSM providers – MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat – are all members of ALTON.
Gunmen, also on Thursday reportedly
bombed a base station belonging to an indigenous telecoms infrastructure
company, IHS Nigeria, in Kano, barely 24 hours after the attack on
several base stations in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Gombe states.
The Executive Director, Commercial and
Business Development, IHS, Mr. Gbenga Onakomaiya, who confirmed the
development to our correspondent on Thursday, said one of the company’s
base stations was bombed in Borno on Wednesday while another one was
bombed in Kano on Thursday morning.
Officials of ALTON put the number of base stations that had been attacked in the north at 26.
President of ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo,
who decried the situation, said “If it becomes impossible to continue
to do business in the face of rising attacks on telecoms sites,
operators will naturally suspend operations in the area.
“This is because beyond base stations,
these elements may begin to target telecoms operators‘ offices and data
centres among other key infrastructure. That is why it is important that
the situation is curtailed before it gets to that point.
“During military coups, dissidents
attack newspaper and television houses as well as telecommunications
centres and infrastructure to destabilise the government. This is not
different from what we are experiencing now as people’s phones can’t be
reached in the affected areas.”
The ALTON president said an emergency
meeting of the association’s executives had been called for today
(Friday) to decide on what next to do.
A Chief Executive Officer of one of the
GSM companies, who asked not to be named, said though the company was
not contemplating suspending its operations as of now, it could be
forced to do so if the situation persisted.
“We are not contemplating the withdrawal
of services as of today but if the situation continues like this in the
next four to five days, we may have to withdraw service. But we are not
contemplating that now,” he said.
Telecoms infrastructure analysts in the
country have put the average cost of a base station at $250,000, which
amounts to N39.47m at an exchange rate of N157.91 to a dollar as at
Thursday.
With 26 base stations already destroyed, an investment of N1.03bn might have gone down the drain.
Contrary to the belief that only MTN,
Airtel and Glo were affected, the Executive Secretary, ALTON, Mr.
Gbolahan Awonuga, said the attack affected all telecoms operators,
including Multilinks and Helios Tower.
When contacted, an official of Helios Tower, said that about three of the company’s base stations were also affected.
He confirmed the report that services
had been disrupted in the affected areas as engineers had been finding
it difficult to give adequate reports of the situation because they
couldn’t be reached.
Onokomaiya, who attested to the
seriousness of the situation, said, “One of our base stations was
bombed in Borno on Wednesday and another was bombed in Kano this morning
(Thursday). The base station was completely burnt out. The generators,
shelter and equipment are gone. The only things remaining now are the
towers and we have to assess them to ascertain their integrity.”
A formal report sent by Multilinks to
ALTON, which was made available to our correspondent, confimed that
Multilinks base stations located at Mainok Village, Borno and another
one at Abari Village in Damaturu, were damaged.
The report said, “Reports obtained from
our personnel indicate that extremists numbering about 40 stormed the
area at about 22:20 Hrs on 05/09/2012 and immediately launched an attack
on the MTN cell site. After the attack on MTN cell site, the extremists
proceeded to our site which is close to the MTN site to launch a
similar attack.
“As at this (Thursday) morning, the
extent of damage done to the site is yet to be ascertained as contact
with the security men is yet to be established after the attack.
“ Also our Abari site in Damaturu which
is not on air was reportedly attacked also. Details remain sketchy as
those resident in the area were all indoors.”
Stakeholders urged the Federal
Government to wade into the issue to ensure that the safety of lives of
operators’ personnel and agents was assured.
Key stakeholders had called on the
Federal Government to bestow on ICT infrastructure a Critical National
Security Infrastructure pending the time appropriate laws would be
enacted to strengthen it.
“The time has come for the passing into
law of the National Security Bill pending in the National Assembly
which must be made all-embracing by giving telecoms industry a critical
mention in the bill,” a former Executive Vice- Chairman, Nigerian
Communications Commission, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, said.
Source: The Punch
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