Guardian

DESPITE the downturn in telecommunications services in the country, the nation’s connected telephone lines grew by 2, 049, 470 in March 2013.

Indeed, the country’s connected lines as at February 2013 was 159, 879,295 but went up to 161, 928, 765 in March.

This growth is coming on heels of sharp drop in quality of services from the telecommunications operators, as subscribers continued to grapple with surge in unconnected calls; drop calls; unsolicited text messages, among others.

According to the latest industry data obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Wednesday, Nigeria’s active telephone lines moved from the 116 million in February to over 117 million in March.

As usual, the GSM operators including MTN Nigeria; Airtel; Globacom and Etisalat continue to dominate. They presently have 114 million subscribers, while the troubled Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators, including Starcomms; Visafone and Multilinks recorded a loss in their active subscriber base.

The CDMA operators, which had 2, 790, 989 active subscription as at February, lost 87, 385 subscribers, entering March with 2,703, 604.

Like the CDMA, the fixed wired/wireless sub-sector with 410, 664 in February sustained a downward profile in March, having 405, 625 subscribers.

Paradoxically, the telecommunications sector installed capacity grew by 10.7 million in March, moving from 226.6 million in February to 237.4 million.

The sector also recorded slight deeper telephone penetration in March. The teledensity moved from 83.2 per cent to 83.7 per cent in March.

It must however, be mentioned that the operators have announced independently the ploughing of about N960 billion into network upgrades and expansion to be able to checkmate the increasing service challenges.

The NCC is however, yet to come out with the number of subscribers that have switched networks in the on-going Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

Though, NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Tony Ojobo had disclosed that 48 hours after the launch on April 22, about 4000 subscribers ported, the president of the National Associations of Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) however, told The Guardian that six weeks into the process in Nigeria, about 10, 000 subscribers have ported.

Ogunbanjo, while appreciating the NCC for introducing MNP, pointed out that most subscribers are yet to get along with the process, stressing that lots of awareness and technicalities around it must be resolved.

Like Ogunbanjo, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo said MNP will not take away service quality challenges.

Adebayo said the quality of service challenge is distinct, saying that it only provides subscribers networks options.

“Like I have said in several of my interviews, MNP will not resolve service quality challenges. It only gives subscribers network provider options. We need to go back to the basis. It has become urgent for government to also intervene.

“The issue of fibre cuts; incessant sites closure by (Local government and agencies of government); multiple taxations, all must be address”, he stated.

According to him, the problem of congestion may not be resolved until government steps in and address grey areas confronting investment in the sector.

Like Adebayo, telecommunications industry expert, Calixthus Okoruwa, also challenged government and regulator to intervene in the down turn in telecommunications services, by bridging the infrastructure gap.

Okoruwa said telecom operators still grapple with power challenge, thereby installing at least two electricity-generating plants in practically every site in which they have installations.

“Such operators must also grapple with the daily increasing difficulties of installing new infrastructure in a terrain where government bureaucracy has become overwhelmingly tedious if not outright rent-seeking.

“Amidst this huge constraint of government bureaucracy and the growing tendency for practically every organ and agency of government from the local government to the federal level to “regulate” the telecom industry, even where funds are available, erecting the requisite telecoms infrastructure in-country can only proceed at a certain slow pace.”

According to him, MNP is not an alternative to the systematic assessment and commitment to painstaking overhauling, building and maintenance of critical country infrastructure and its associated processes.