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Business News of Saturday, 29 February 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Airtel Nigeria blames dropped calls on vandalism, fibre cuts

Airtel Airtel

Telecommunications giant, Airtel Nigeria has blamed the continuous occurrence of dropped calls on vandalism of its assets.

As a result, the telcos called on the Government to wade into the matter.

The company’s vice president for network operations, Adedoyin Adeola urged the federal government to add assets used in the telecommunications industry to the list of critical national infrastructure.

He said that the absence of the telecommunications industry on CNI has exposed resources and assets to theft, vandalism and fibre cuts which result in dropped calls and other poor customers’ experiences.

“There have been 1,022 fibre cuts since July 2019. Airtel has over 282 bombed sites. 164 of them have been recovered of which 42 were bombed again.

“What we are telling the government is to put telecoms into critical national infrastructure. If CNI is there, fibre cuts will be well managed and anyone stealing our infrastructure will know that the consequence is severe," he said.

The company’s vice president for corporate communications and corporate social responsibility, Emeka Opara, told journalists that companies relying on the company’s service have been affected by the challenges.

“We are losing money. It is not in the best interest of anyone to have dropped calls. It is affecting businesses relying on us. We are also concerned about our reputation,” he told journalists in Lagos on Thursday.

Last year, Minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Pantami, said that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration would issue an executive order to declare telecommunications infrastructure as critical national infrastructure.

A bill has also been presented to the national assembly demanding the inclusion of telecommunications assets on CNI.