Various fibre cuts may have cost affected telecoms operators, especially MTN and Airtel, about N27 billion ($23 million) in repairs last year. To reduce the cost of the operations of the firms, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works, is making moves to reduce the impact through regulation.
According to a Bloomberg report, the regulation will enforce stiffer penalties on offenders and focus on underground network cables. Vandalism of telecoms sector has been rampant in the country, causing untold pain to the operators, which equally impacts on their services to end users.
Last year, MTN, the country’s largest telco, suffered more than 6,000 cuts on its fibre network and several hours of outages. The telco spent ₦11 billion to move 2,500 kilometres of vulnerable fibre cables between 2022 and 2023, which led the telco to complain to the government that it was spending billions of naira to fix damaged broadband cables.
The regulation will also focus on construction companies, as they often damage these underground cables. In February, MTN’s customers suffered more than five hours of outages after fibre damage in three different locations was caused by a road construction firm, an oil serving company and a fire.
Broadband fibre optic cables form the backbone of modern communication infrastructure, enabling high-speed data transmission that underpins a wide range of personal, business, and societal activities.
The spate of attacks and theft of telecoms facilities is on the rise. Some of the operators put the rate at over 35 per cent, almost yearly. In a separate fora in 2022, the NCC had decried the increasing rate of vandalism on telecoms facilities that includes daily 40 fibre cuts, stealing of oil panels and other valuables at operators’ sub-stations.
The commission had said that over 50,000 cases of major desctruction to telecoms infrastructure and facilities were reported across the country in the past five years, ending 2023, with huge implications of these incidents on the quality of telecommunications services in Nigeria.
A recent industry document showed that some construction companies, including Crainberg, CCECC, Julius Berger, OGC, FERMA and KOPEC were fingered in the various damages to telecoms infrastructure, especially, fibre optic cables.
The document showed that these cuts were largely noticed in some cities including Eket, Enugu, Agbor-Asaba, Ashikwo, Okapanam, Ikolaba, Abuja, Lafia, Owerri and Lagos,
In 20202, Airtel Nigeria cried out that road construction projects in Lagos and other parts of the country were negatively impacting its network performance due to the high level of cuts they give to its fibre cables.
