NIGERIAN TELECOMS OPERATORS ASSURE SUBSCRIBERS OF IMPROVED SERVICES IN 2013

The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) on Wednesday assured telecoms subscribers of improved quality of services in 2013.
Mr Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of ALTON, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that operators were upgrading their networks to ensure better quality services henceforth.
He said that subscribers deserved value for money in terms of the quality of services being rendered to them. According to him, a lot of works are in progress towards providing better services and reduce call drop rate as well as improved interconnectivity among operators.
Adebayo said that operators were extremely passionate about building robust and resilient networks that would empower more Nigerians to fulfill their needs.
He said that operators had invested heavily in building additional base stations in the underserved and un-served areas.
The ALTON chairman appealed to the Federal Government to provide security for all telecoms facilities across the country.
“The bombing of telecoms outfits and the devastating floods affected a number of our base transceiver stations across the country in 2012 which had significant impact on the quality of services.
“We are hoping that in 2013, government will assist us to secure critical telecoms infrastructure that can affect the quality of service,” Adebayo said.
He said that operators had done a lot of work to overcome the infrastructural and environmental challenges impeding the delivery of quality services.
“Telecoms operators are still upgrading their facilities to meet the growing number of subscribers that are increasing exponentially every day.
“We will improve on our network capacity so as to nip in the bud the issues of call drop, poor quality of voice signal, poor reception and poor inter-connectivity with other networks,” he said.
Adebayo said that telecoms equipment should be seen as public infrastructure that should be given adequate protection by the government.
“Those facilities are seen to be owned by service providers, but we are saying that going forward, they should be seen as facilities in care of the public and supervised by the government,” Adebayo said.
He called for government intervention in the area of providing stable power supply, securing the environment, elimination of multiple taxes and regulation of the sector.