JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Nigerian mobile network operators MTN Nigeria and Econet Wireless have blamed a gang of thieves called the Area Boys for the poor quality of service in some areas of Nigeria.
The companies were responding to questions posed by the regulator, the Nigeria Communications Commission’s (NCC), on the issue of quality of service. The two operators said harassment by the gangs in deploying infrastructure was the main cause for the poor service levels, particularly in the Delta province, although this has begun to spread farther north.
MTN Nigeria and Econet Wireless both said they have had to spend vast amounts of money to ensure the safety of their equipment once installed, such as employing 24-hour guards and ensuring back-up generators are fuelled. In one instance, a gang of thieves used a crane and other heavy-duty equipment to steal a diesel generator that had been installed with a base station.
In addition, the operators said some state and local government areas are also hindering the delivery of service in enforcing unrealistic taxes and license levies on them. The number of states and local councils the operators had to move their equipment through to roll out the network compounded this problem.
Another major concern for the operators in respect of quality of service was the unavailability of leased lines from the state-owned network operator Nitel, with one company saying that less than 18 percent of the requested leased lines had been installed.
The regulator appealed to the national carrier to begin rolling out the leased-line facilities to the mobile operators, but at the same time said the arrival of competition in the fixed-line area with Globalcom could lead to overcoming these problems.
