Some host communities are resisting efforts by telecoms operators to repair the telecommunications installations damaged by armed insurgents in a series of attacks in the North in 2012, our correspondent has gathered.
Islamist sect, Boko Haram, had on Wednesday, September 16, 2012 blown up telecoms base stations in Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe and Kano states, which resulted in over 150 Base Transceiver Stations belonging to telecoms service providers being put out of commission.
The affected operators include MTN, which has the largest number of base stations across the country and consequently suffered the most loss, Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom, Visafone, Helios Towers and IHS Nigeria.
Investigations by our correspondent on Tuesday revealed that many of the damaged sites were yet to be put back into service by the operators for many reasons, among which were general insecurity and resistance by host communities who think repairing the sites might attract further attacks.
“It is a frustrating situation. At the current stage of development of the industry, it is not in our interest to lose a single base station anywhere in the country, considering the capacity deficit we have and the attendant strain on quality of service,” an engineer with one of the operators, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said.
He further said, “So, when you do have this sort of incident where some of the inadequate existing base stations are knocked off the national network, it is a very terrible thing indeed, and the next urgent thing to do is to repair the damaged sites as quickly as possible in order to ease the pressure on the network.
“But sadly, that has not been the case as many residents of the areas where the sites are located are chasing engineers away. They believe repairing the sites may attract the armed insurgents again, and in the process, expose them to more danger.”
Places where the challenge is most pronounced, according to the source, are the North-Eastern states, especially Borno and Yobe.
A source from one of the service providers also told our correspondent that his team of engineers had for months been unable to carry out a simple survey of damaged sites in the heart of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State due to local resistance.
“We have tried everything we know to make them realise the importance of allowing us access to our BTS, but they bluntly refused because they see the site as a harbinger of insurgent attacks,” the source said.
Our correspondent also gathered that only very few reachable ones out of the 150 damaged base stations had been repaired.
The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, lamented the general insecurity in the North, which has slowed down the recovery rate for operators.
He said 2012 was a dreadful year for telecommunications in the country as the sector lost over 530 base stations to terrorism and floods, putting the quality of service under unprecedented strain.
While over 150 BTS were lost to terrorism, about 380 were destroyed by floods, he said.
The implication of this, according to the ALTON boss, is that quality of service in the affected areas will remain poor.