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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Technology

Poor network: Telecom upgrades slowed by fibre cuts, insecurity — ALTON

From The Punch · (6m ago) English Critical tone

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • Recurring fibre cuts, vandalism, and security challenges are hindering Nigeria's telecom modernization efforts, increasing operational costs and impacting service quality.
  • These issues cause significant delays in service restoration, especially in insecure areas, leading to network congestion and a poor user experience.
  • Despite telecom fibre being classified as Critical National Information Infrastructure, operators face frequent cuts averaging 40 daily on the Lagos-to-Kano corridor, alongside theft of equipment.

Nigeria's ambition to upgrade its telecommunications infrastructure is facing significant headwinds, primarily due to persistent issues of fibre cuts, vandalism, and pervasive insecurity. The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has highlighted how these challenges are not only undermining modernization drives but also escalating operational expenses and compromising service quality for millions of Nigerians.

There are areas in the country where if you have a fault at 5 pm or 6 pm, you can’t send people to restore services until the next morning.

— Gbenga AdebayoDescribing the impact of insecurity on telecom service restoration.

The impact of insecurity is particularly acute, with ALTON Chairman Gbenga Adebayo noting that restoration efforts are often delayed until the following morning in affected areas. This inability to promptly address faults exacerbates network congestion when problems arise, leading to frustratingly slow internet speeds and dropped calls for users. The classification of telecom fibre as Critical National Information Infrastructure by President Bola Tinubu's administration, while a step in the right direction, has yet to fully deter these destructive acts.

When you have a problem on the communications highway… it leads to congestion and delays in restoration and downtime.

— Gbenga AdebayoExplaining the consequences of fibre cuts on network performance.

Adebayo further pointed out a concerning disparity in bandwidth costs, suggesting it can be cheaper to procure international bandwidth from London to Lagos than to transmit it internally from Lagos to London. This anomaly is attributed to the high cost of maintaining domestic fibre infrastructure amidst constant damage. The sheer frequency of fibre cuts, with an average of 40 incidents daily along the Lagos-to-Kano corridor alone, coupled with the theft of essential equipment like batteries and generators from base stations, paints a grim picture. These persistent disruptions and escalating costs place immense pressure on operators already grappling with rising capital expenditure needs, ultimately affecting the reliability and affordability of telecommunications services across the nation.

It may be cheaper to buy bandwidth between Canary Wharf and London to Lagos than from Lagos to London.

— Gbenga AdebayoIllustrating the disparity in bandwidth costs due to domestic infrastructure challenges.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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