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NCC reports 30,000 due to road construction
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Sets up joint committee to tackle issue
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Aminu Maida, has disclosed that the country recorded over 50,000 incidents of fibre optic cuts in 2024, with approximately 30,000 of these disruptions linked to road construction activities by federal and state agencies.
According to a statement issued by NCC Spokesperson, Reuben Mouka, on Monday, the EVC made the disclosure last week during the inauguration of a Joint Standing Committee on the Protection of Fibre Optic Cables by the Federal Ministry of Works (FMoW) and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy (FMoCIDE).
The committee was established to address the recurring issue of fibre optic cuts and damage caused by road construction and rehabilitation activities.
The NCC boss emphasised the significance of the committee’s mandate, noting that it has the potential to significantly reduce service disruptions across Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.
“This is a pivotal moment for the telecommunication industry and its customers. Fibre networks are the foundation of Nigeria’s broadband ecosystem, providing the essential high-capacity backhaul required to deliver ultra-fast 4G and 5G speeds, as these next-generation mobile technologies rely on fibre infrastructure to ensure low latency, high reliability, and seamless data transmission.
“Last year, we experienced over 50,000 fibre cuts incidents across the country, of which around 30,000 were attributed to federal and state road construction activities. In the extreme, some of these incidents had led to major network outages, like the February 2024 nationwide MTN network outage.
“A key contributor to the increasing number of fibre cuts attributed to road construction activities is the lack of an efficient handshake mechanism between road construction companies and operators of the fibre infrastructure.
“I am optimistic that the work of this committee will lead to a significant reduction in fibre cuts attributed to road construction, which would then reduce network outages, avoid unnecessary expenditure on repair works, and reduce the need to put redundant routes in place to serve as alternatives whenever there are outages due to fibre cuts.
“This initiative is not just for the benefit of the telecommunications industry but for all Nigerians. Every time a fibre cut occurs, consumers experience service disruptions. The industry is forced to invest in costly redundancy measures, but if we can prevent these avoidable disruptions, operators can redirect resources towards network expansion and infrastructure improvement,” Maida stated.