…Nigerians await relief
By Chinenye Anuforo
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“They hiked tariffs by 50 per cent, but calls hardly go through. Text messages hang. Internet crawls at a snail’s pace. The situation is troubling and no end in sight”.
These are typical daily complaints of millions of telecom subscribers in Nigeria as they question when the ordeal will finally come to an end.
In January, the federal government approved a 50 per cent tariff hike for telcos with the intention of bolstering infrastructure and service quality.
However, subscribers are seeing the effort as one that has impaired, not improved their lot because they are grappling with a frustrating reality of poor network performance.
In the midst of the confusion and frustration, telecom operators insist that efforts are in top gear to improve services but judging from the widespread outcry from consumers, it is obvious the situation appears like mass exploitation and unmet expectations.
Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), recently acknowledged the dip in service quality but asked for patience on the part of subscribers.
Speaking to journalists recently, he stated that operators are actively working to upgrade their infrastructure, at least to justify the significant price increases. The January tariff adjustment saw voice calls jump from N11.00 to N16.50 per minute, SMS surge from N4.00 to N6.00, and 1GB of data climb from N350.00 to N525.00. The NCC had argued that this increase was crucial to enable telcos like MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9 Mobile to invest in necessary upgrades and innovation.
However, the promised improvements have yet to materialise for millions of Nigerians.
Subscribers across the nation are reporting a litany of persistent problems, including frequent network outages that leave them disconnected for extended periods.
Internet speeds remain agonisingly slow for many, hindering productivity and access to online services.
Dropped calls continue to plague conversations, while SMS messages often fail to be delivered. Fluctuating network connectivity makes reliable communication a daily struggle, and issues surrounding data rollover persist, often leading to the loss of unused data. Adding to consumer frustration are widespread complaints of illegal credit deductions and abysmal customer service when attempting to resolve these issues.
Adebayo attributed the current service woes partly to the aging infrastructure, stating that much of the existing telecom equipment has reached its “end-of-life” stage after decades of service since the industry’s inception in Nigeria. He further suggested that a lack of recent investment in new infrastructure may be a significant contributing factor to the recent decline in service quality experienced by users.
Industry statistics indicated that Nigeria currently has approximately 40,000 telecom towers supporting around 144,000 transceiver stations. In a bid to significantly enhance the nation’s $76 billion telecom sector, the Federal Government has set a target of deploying an ambitious 90,000km of new fibre optic backbone by the fourth quarter of this year. This initiative aims to expand the current 35,000km to a substantial 125,000km within the next five years, which is anticipated to provide a significant boost to network capacity and speed.
Addressing concerns about the ongoing global trade tensions and their potential impact on the Nigerian telecom sector, Adebayo offered a cautious perspective. While acknowledging the interconnectedness of the global economy, he noted that Nigeria’s limited technology exports to the United States might insulate it from direct landing tariff impacts. However, he cautioned that if the cost of crucial imported software and hardware increases due to international trade dynamics, it would inevitably affect the operational expenses of Nigerian telecom operators and potentially trickle down to consumers.
As Nigerians continue to grapple with subpar mobile services despite the recent tariff hikes, the pressure is mounting on both the telecom operators and the regulatory bodies to deliver on the promised improvements. The disparity between the increased costs and the persistent service deficiencies has left many feeling shortchanged, raising questions about the effectiveness of the tariff increase as a solution to the industry’s underlying infrastructure challenges. Consumers are demanding tangible improvements that reflect the significant financial burden they are now bearing.