The Chairman of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, has said there was every need to push and secure the approval of the Federal Government to stamp a ten year jail term for telecom infrastructure vandals, saying their activities have impaired so much on the success rate of telecom operation in the country

According to Adebayo, the reason why the development of Nigeria's Information and Communications Technology is celebrated world over, is the fact that telecom was reduced from being an elitist commodity, to the extent it became the first call of every Nigerian, and so allowing vandals to hold sway would only spell doom.

TELECOMMUNICATION operators are recently pilling pressure on the Federal Government to approve a 10-year jail term for apprehended vandals of their base stations and other infrastructure like optic fibre cables.

They are even taking the fight a step further, by pulling resources together towards getting the punishment which sources say will not have option of fine into the nation's law books.

To accomplish its legalisation, they are planning to storm the National Assembly with a private bill - the protection of telecom and communications services related infrastructure bill.

Negotiations are on going to ensure that other stakeholders in the ICT industry, join the lobby for the passage of the bill into law.

The reason given for the proposed punishment is to discourage offenders who might want to go ahead to steal the installations preferring to pay the fine options which obviously might not be equal to the fat loot.

Also plans are underway to have the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, consumer protection advocacy groups and pressure groups as well as all telecom companies and other telecom associations in the country, to an all inclusive meeting to discuss possible set backs to the goal and possible strategies to form a common front to ensure easy passage of the law.

This is going by the realisation that most independent sponsored bills, end up not getting passed into law for several reasons including inability to present a common front to back the purpose of the bill.

Adebayo who confirmed the development, said it was a fallout of the massive loss being incurred by telecom operators resulting from constant infrastructure theft and vandalisation.

According to Adebayo, ALTON was actually at the fore front of the plan to sponsor the bill at the National Assembly, even as he expressed optimism that having been a problem that affects all, the bill would not have much problem being passed into law.

He told Vanguard that, he was at a loss how it became a serious offence punishable by a long stretch of prison sentence to vandalise the NITEL properties when it was fully in operation, while the same protection is not extended to today's telecom operators who are largely private firms.

Adebayo said, "over time we have articulated and packaged our submissions to the Federal Government by writing relevant agencies, Ministries and related authorities over what we have been going through in the hands of vandals and thieves who steal and damage our facilities and the need to give some kind of protection so we can focus on delivering our promises to the subscribers. But you can see that the development is a recurrent one.

It is common sight how even contractors of government damage operators' infrastructure with careless abandon yet these operators are only left to leak their wound privately. Yet every body calls for their head if there is a slight drop in quality of service.

"We can not fold our arms and watch things continue the way they are going," he said

Adebayo cautioned that with the astronomical growth of telecom subscribers on the networks government should at least provide those basic things to help the operators in providing quality and seamless services or risk having the networks collapse with inestimable drastic effects on the economy of the country.

Having covered over 60% of the entire country with over 45 million active connected lines, the huge investments in telecom infrastructure, actually deserves protection.

Available statistics shows that the operators (GSM and CDMA) combined have deployed over 12,000 base stations, over 14,000km optic fibre cable, 23,000 km microwave transmission among other investments.

Yet with the over 12,000 base stations, the operators need well over 24 000 units of power generating sets with capacities ranging from 15kva to 17.5 kva and a total of over 1.2 billion litres of diesel per annum to run them, since each base station consumes over 350 litres of diesel per day.

The implication is that whatever affects these facilities jerks the investments up and reduces the quality of services they may provide and the subscribers would finally bear the brunt.