Lanre Ajayi, president, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), on Monday urged the Federal Government to remove barriers limiting the expansion of telecommunications services in the country.
Ajayi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the barriers were frustrating efforts of operators to provide more effective services to the 150 million active subscribers.
He said that government’s support was vital to the attainment of desirable services in the sector.
The ATCON official said the country would continue to experience poor services if the government failed to take urgent steps to remove those barriers.
“The telecoms revolution will be a mirage if government does not take urgent steps in mitigating vandalism and theft of telecom equipment at the Base Transmission Stations (BTS).
“Others are extortion by officials of the three tiers of government, bureaucratic bottleneck in acquiring approval to build BTS and the protracted issue of granting Right-of-Way,” he said.
Ajayi alleged that efforts by operators to invest in BTS rollouts for improved service were being frustrated by agencies of the state and local governments.
“Factors impeding quick rollout of BTS that were critical to quality services include the delay by the relevant authorities in approving the site building proposals for the operators.
“This is preventing the operators from achieving the number of BTS the country needs to guarantee better services,” he said.
Ajayi advised states and local governments to work together with the telecom operators in building more BTS for enhanced services in the sector.