Some 9 years ago Nigerians were looking forward to the dawn of a new era in view of the license granted to three operators then to render services at the 900MHz frequency spectrum with Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications technology.
This month of August marks Nine years since the country began the liberalization of telecommunications industry through adoption of this technology as a means of providing Nigerians communications tools.
The Nigerian telecommunications industry since then has experience significant growth, following the successful takeoff of the digital mobile telephone services, using GSM technology, from less than 500,000 active fixed telephone lines provided by Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel) and very few Private Telephone Operators (PTOs) as at mid 2001, to a population of over 120 million, the total number of connected fixed and mobile telephone lines increased to about 76 million both active and inactive lines early this year.
However the entrance of the GSM technology brought about such a revolutionary transformation that millions of Nigerians with no access to telecommunications now clutch mobile phones in their hands. It is common sight to see traders, fish sellers, hawkers, motorcycle riders among others using mobile phones. The staggering number of subscribers on three major GSM networks of MTN, Globacom, Zain and Etisalat as Nigeria celebrates nine years of operations of this technology, is a testimony to the hunger of Nigerians for communications.
It is clear that Nigeria cannot celebrate the growth recorded in the communications sphere without acknowledging the contributions of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, immediate past executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Ndukwe has over the years emerged as the face of GSM in Nigeria through his transparent handling of the regulatory affairs of the telecoms sector.
Since February of 2001 when he supervise the auctioning of GSM license in the country, he conducted the affairs of the regulatory functions of the commission in such a way that other countries in Africa now come to Nigeria to understudy the regulatory processes that has seen the sector emerge as the largest and fastest growing in Africa and the 3rd fastest growth in the world.
Several research firms across the globe have commended the Nigerian government and Ndukwe, as one of the most sought-after telecom resource persons in the industry in Africa for an effective transparent and foreign investment attracting regimes in the continent. In spite of the challenges in the quality service characterized by drop calls, Ndukwe’s startling qualities as a regulator of note is still intact.
However, NCC had taken several measures to tackle the issues of quality service. One of the ways the NCC has shown that it was serious in tackling issues of quality of service was in the area of enforcing its regulatory powers to stop operators from further promos that has been a major cause of network congestion witnessed few years ago. By that action, the NCC sent a massage that no operator is above the law and that they must conform to measures that will save the sector from further deterioration due to their poor service delivery. The commission had also procured equipment that enables it monitor congestion and service quality of the various networks in the country, and therefore periodically publishes network performance of operators.
It also ensured that operators paid their subscribe compensation for poor quality of service experience on the network.
Benefits
In the last nine years, since the GSM revolution started in the country, a lot of benefits have been enjoyed by the Nigerian subscriber who was hitherto at the mercy of the almost nonexistent but epileptic service rendered by the Nigerian Telecommunications (Nitel). Since then, the monopoly of non effective service rendered by Nitel has been broken and communication across regions enhanced by GSM thus encouraging the socio economic growth of the nation. It is an indubitable fact that effective communication is crucial and cannot be overemphasized in the socio economic development of a nation. With a teledensity presently below 65% and a subscriber base of 76 million as at the end of April, one could say that a feat has been achieved by the GSM revolution in connecting Nigerians to a critical service given the fact that before the advent of GSM, teledesity was less than 4% and only about five hundred thousand Nigerians had access to telephony service in a nation of over a hundred million people.
Then having a telephone was a class issue and only the rich could afford the luxury and the muscle to withstand the stress of Nitel technicians who used to hold subscribers to ransom at every little opportunity. Then it was common sight to see the technicians asking for ladder, cables and all sorts to fix a line anytime a problem arises, it was indeed a nightmare. One could easily recall the stress of keeping vigil at the office of Nitel in a bid to make calls and be confronted with the common problem of no tone come back tomorrow and so on. But thanks to president Obasanjo and the coming of GSM all that is now history.
The GSM revolution has indeed contributed over 80 percent of $18 billion foreign direct investment. It has also stimulated local investment and increased job opportunities. It is common scene in urban areas as well as rural areas where there is coverage for young men and women sitting under an umbrella provided for them by GSM operators making calls for people at a token. This umbrella call centre initiative is today providing food to greater percentage of unemployed Nigerians, aside this are others who are trading in recharge cards and other products of GSM operators.
The benefit of GSM technology is enormous and still increasing as it gets expanded, we may not easily forget that Nigerians are now turning to GSM engineers, and there are young countrymen and women who eke out their living through repair of mobile handsets.
The popular Otigba computer village is no longer computer village in its sense as the sales of mobile handset has almost taken over business at the market.
The revolution has also indirectly stimulated development and vibrancy of some sectors of the economy, such sectors are leveraging on the technology deployed by GSM operators to provide services to their customers.
A case in point is the banking sector which gives customers the opportunity to monitor and carry out transactions on the move through their mobile phones. Automated teller machines (ATM) deployed by banks are working with the help of GSM General package radio service (GPRS) deployed by operators.
There has been an increased turnover for advertising and marketing communication services basically because of the GSM operators that use the channel often times to reach their subscribers during campaign for more subscribers.
Challenges
In spite of the benefits, Nigerians are enjoying from the advert of GSM technology, the operators are not finding it a world of roses in rendering services. The much talked about poor quality of services is a function of weak infrastructure base; operators have been powering their equipment with generators which are not the case in most environments. This is attributed to inefficient public power system.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that the four major operators in this space, MTN, Glomobile, Zain and Etisalat are powering their over 22,000 base transceiver stations with 44,000 generators. They are also providing security for their equipment which has not deterred unscrupulous Nigerians from stealing these generators and diesel. Operators are losing an average of two generators daily and over a million litres of diesel to theft. This is indeed a huge lost to bear by operators.
There is also the problem of area boys. One of the operators has had to shut down one of its sites in Lagos due to incessant demand of huge settlement by area boys. In the Niger Delta area, one of the operators reported that over 30 of its sites have become inaccessible due to activities of militant youths, who have refused them to refuel or maintain the sites except they parted with huge sum of money. It is unfair on the GSM operators, who unlike the oil companies are not taking any natural resources but are building telecommunications infrastructure around the country.
Operators are also faced with multiple taxation imposed on their equipment by different tiers of government, Abuja Capital Development Authority had sometime imposed N3 million annual fee on each base station in the metropolis. More so Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigerian (Alton), the umbrella body of the telecom operators, are in count with Lagos State government over the later imposition of N500,000 fee per base station in the state.
However, events in the recent past suggest that other federal government agencies as well as states are now making effort to usurp NCC’s function in the telecommunications industry which is unknown to the country’s law.
It has become a common practice for any government agency be it federal or state to solicits for one levy or the other from operators while some seek that operators secure approval from them which comes with a fee before they can build infrastructure.
The regulatory body also needs to ensure that competition is enshrined in all market segments of the sector as well as maintain favorable regulatory and investment climate, required for the protection of customers. This is necessary in view of anti competitive behavior of some GSM operators.
The next phase of telecommunications growth will come from expanding coverage to the rural areas. With a 60 percent of the country being covered with Telecommunication services, it is obvious that a huge gap needs to be tapped and already the focus for now by stakeholders and investors is on the rural communities.
Foreign investors are showing enthusiasm to come to Nigeria and do business mostly as a result of the fact that in spite of the infrastructural problems posed by lack of power, roads among others, Nigeria has a high return on investments rate. It is a fertile ground for any investor to recoup their investments in the short possible time; this is because of its population. The country has witnessed higher investments in the urban areas with lower investments in the rural areas by telecom operators. In other to bridge this gap, telecommunications and internet services need to deployed services to the rural areas which will solve the problem of rural to urban drift.
The NCC under Dr. Eugene Juwah, should not relent in its efforts of playing its regulatory functions in an effective manner. Nigeria has a lot to gain and cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that an effective regulatory environment has to a large extent helped in steering the ship of the nation’s telecoms revolution.
As Nigeria celebrates this nine year of Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), subscribers await the introduction of number portability which is believed will in no small measure help to address the quality of service issues.
NCC needs to be commended for rising up to the challenges of regulation, especially with SIM registration, call centre initiative, consumer parliament and its current effort at ensuring that physically challenged group in the society are fairly treated by operators.