The minister of communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo has said that the growth in the nation's telecommunication industry is phenomenal and that from 2001 to date, the connected fixed and wireless lines increased from 400,000 to over 3 million lines.

In the area of investments, Chief Adebayo disclosed that from N50 million yearly investments as at December 1999, the situation has improved to over N4 billion currently.

Adebayo who made this known on the occasion of Nigerian telecom subscribers award (NITOSA) held Tuesday night at in Lagos, was represented by Mr Saka Momoh. It was an event that saw National Communications Commission (NCC) winning the excellence award, M-Tel won the network of the year 2003 award, and Globacom was the preferred GSM network award.

Speaking at the award ceremony, national coordinator, Telecom Subscribers Rights Agenda (TELSRAD), Prince Ene Baba-Owoh organizers of the award said the message the subscribers are sending with these awards is that they can no longer be taken for a ride.

"Henceforth we shall exercise our rights and interests in a robust fashion not devoid of democratic tendencies to help shape the face of qualitative and affordable telephones in Nigeria," he said.

To emerge as the winners of the award he said subscribers in 20 towns and cities voted their preferred GSM operators and the regulatory agencies of their choice into the three different categories of the awards.

He urged the operators to reduce the charges paid by subscribers for text messages from the current N15 to N10.

Also, he called for the fine-tuning of the per second billing system so that the 60 second cumulative calls do not exceed the total amount charged per minute by any network.