The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has appealed to state governments to desist from excavating and destroying underground telecommunication cables during road construction.
The commission’s appeal comes amid rampant cases of telecommunications fibre cuts across the country.
Speaking at a consumer sensitisation forum in Uyo in the Akwa Ibom State, NCC's director of technical standards and network integrity, Babalarabe Sani, said the commission had recorded more than 1,200 cases of fibre cuts owing to road constructions in the last few months.
Sani said that the trend was worrisome as it affected the ability of telecoms companies to provide quality services.
“In the last few months, we have recorded over 1,200 cases of fibre cuts due to road construction. This is besides the many more cases of outright stealing of the fibre. This is bad for the industry and our appeal goes to governments of all states in the country,” said Sani.
"While we are not advocating for constructions should stop, our appeal is that the fibre cables, when excavated, should be handled with care and buried back after the construction work,” he said.
Also speaking at the forum, Femi Atoyebi, NCC assistant director of consumer affairs said the commission is working towards sending a bill to the National Assembly on the need to protect and tackle the vandals of telecommunications infrastructure in the country.
He said that the bill, if passed into law, could severely punish culprits.
“Vandalising of telecoms infrastructure and equipment has become a worrisome development emerging in Nigeria’s highly competitive telecoms market,” said Atoyebi.
"As a regulatory agency, we are working on sending a separate bill to the National Assembly to address this issue,” he said.
Atoyebi further said that vandalism of telecoms infrastructure is capable of hampering more investments by potential investors in the sector.
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