Telecom Operators Lose N35.4bn to Fibre Cable Cuts in One 12 months
The telecom operators in Nigeria have bemoaned frequent fibre optic cable cuts, resulting in a lack of not less than $23m (35.4bn) in 2023.
This has additionally precipitated web outages, impacting telecom service high quality within the nation, in response to the operators.
In February, media stories mentioned hundreds of thousands of MTN Nigeria clients couldn’t make calls or connect with the web for about 4 hours due to a number of fibre cuts.
These cuts have gotten more and more frequent, disrupting web speeds, entry, and reliability.
Airtel Nigeria, in response to media stories, lately referred to as for pressing actions to guard telecom infrastructure as vandalism continues to surge resulting in a report of a mean of 43 fibre cuts day by day on the Airtel community alone.
The corporate’s Director of Company Communications and CSR, Femi Adeniran, was quoted as saying the telco had suffered a complete of seven,742 fibre cuts within the final six months.
Based on him, fibre cuts—primarily brought on by development actions, vandalism, and an absence of coordination between stakeholders—have turn into an epidemic within the Nigerian telecom business.
Fibre optic cables are very important to connectivity as a result of they convey community capability nearer to subscribers.
As of 2023, Nigeria had deployed 78,676 kilometres of fibre optic cable, with most concentrated in city areas like Lagos (7,864.60km), Edo (4,892.71km), FCT (4,472.03km), Ogun (4,189.18km), and Niger (3,681.66km).
In a submission to the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Financial system, Bosun Tijani, the Affiliation of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) emphasised the significance of an uninterrupted infrastructure community, together with fibre cables, towers and information centres, to optimum service high quality.
“Relying on the foundation of the influence, it might probably result in extended outages. It additionally disrupts easy operations,” ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo mentioned.
Learn Additionally:
These cuts are costly to repair. Based on a Bloomberg report, broken cables price telcos N27 billion ($23 million) in repairs and misplaced revenues in 2023, with MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa Plc shouldering a lot of the prices.
MTN suffered greater than 6,000 fibre cable cuts in 2023. The report mentioned MTN relocated 2,500 kilometres (1,553 miles) of weak fibre cables between 2022 and 2023, costing greater than N11 billion. This funding may have constructed 870 kilometres of latest fibre cables in underserved areas.
It was reported that the Nigerian ICT sector has been calling on the federal authorities to designate telecom infrastructure as a vital nationwide asset to deal with the persistent assaults on infrastructure throughout the nation.
“In 2023 alone, MTN Nigeria reported struggling greater than 6,000 cuts on its fibre cable. The operator relocated 2,500 kilometres of weak fibre cables between 2022 and 2023 at a value exceeding N11bn—sufficient to construct 870 kilometres of latest fibre strains in areas with out protection”, an announcement mentioned in October.
The important thing stakeholders within the sector have additionally requested the federal authorities to safeguard Nigeria’s telecommunications infrastructure from cyber threats, theft, and vandalism, that are essential for the nation’s financial development.
The stakeholders spoke throughout a panel session, titled, ‘Defending Essential Nationwide Infrastructure: Securing Nigeria’s Telecommunications Sector for Sustainable Progress’, on the thirtieth Nigerian Financial Summit in Abuja.
The Senior Vice President/Chief Company Companies Officer, IHS, Dapo Otunla, mentioned it grew to become vital to strengthen core infrastructure driving Nigeria’s digital financial system by safeguarding the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure.
He mentioned defending telecommunications property was very important to reaching the digital financial system targets of the present administration and referred to as for collaborative options for safeguarding these vital property from vandalism, theft and cyber assaults.
SOURCE: Day by day Belief