FRESH TROUBLE IN TELECOM SECTOR

[MrVan]

FRESH TROUBLE IN TELECOM SECTOR: Senate frowns at non resolution of indiscriminate telecom facility closure

By Prince Osuagwu

There are indications that the senate committee on communications is spoiling for war over the inability of the Communications Technology Ministry and its counterpart, the Environment Ministry, to resolve the issue of arbitrary sealing of telecom base stations more than three weeks after public hearing on the issue.

More to the committee's chagrin is the latest statement credited to National Environmental Safety Regulatory and Enforcement Agency, NESREA, that it had only sealed 22 base stations from the operators as against the 52 claimed by both the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC and the operators.

The senate is frowning that after allegedly admitting on oath to the 52 base stations, NESREA turned around to claim it had only sealed 22. The committee now suspects that the claim and counter claim between NCC and NESREA may be a ploy to divert attention and continue the indiscriminate closure of telecom facilities which has contributed largely to the poor services the subscribers have long been grappling with.

Information gathered from reliable sources is that the committee was planning to take the bull by the horn, to re-invite the two ministries and give directives that can no longer be flouted.

After a public hearing in Abuja, on the issue recently, the Senate committee had given the two ministries two weeks to settle the issue of sealing, unsealing and resealing of telecom facilities which has hampered telecom services and pitched the two government agencies against each other.

However, more than three weeks after, no resolution, if ever reached, has been made pubic.  Although, a Communications Ministry official who spoke to Vanguard on the issue said that much ground has been covered. He promised that very soon the issue would be put to rest.

It was also gathered that the two ministries were working to arrive at a common guideline acceptable to both, which the operators would have to abide by when deploying base stations in future.

NESREA denies sealing 52 base stations

Meanwhile, in what it called clarification of its position on the issue of sealed base stations, NESREA through its Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sule Oyofo, was quoted recently as telling journalists that the agency did not shut down any telecom base station for the purpose of truncating their operation.

He explained that various base stations had been sealed up due to the violation of environmental laws in setting up those base stations. According to him, most base stations are cited indiscriminately, close to residential areas without regard to environmental health hazards of those residents living around those places.

Oyofo said, "We have shut down only 22 base stations nationwide because they contravene environmental laws. Their actions have demonstrated utter disregard for extant environmental laws and regulations in which public complaints on them remained unaddressed."

He said the agency would not be deterred by any mischief from any agency, as NESREA insists on carrying out its legitimate duty without recourse to blackmail. Oyofo even cited example of a construction company, Gilmor, whose office in Abuja was shut down, saying it has paid its fine of N1 million. NESREA earlier shut down Gilmor offices for refusing to present its Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, certificate for verification.

Senate fumes

Meanwhile, a close source to the Senate Committee on Communications has hinted that the Senate is miffed at the statement, suspecting that it could be part of the reasons for the inability of the agencies to unseal the base stations as directed since its last intervention and meeting with both parties.

The source, also hinted that after waiting in vain for success reports from the two ministries since the hearing, the committee was considering recalling the parties to give them fresh mandates which must be carried out within a specified time to save the telecom sector from losing its grip on the economy.

"The Senate Committee on Communications has expressed worry over the inability of the Minister of Environment, and her Communications Technology counterpart to resolve the matter of sealing of base stations by NESREA within two weeks as promised during the public hearing to forestall the impact of abrupt closure of live base stations given its security and other implications," the source said.

The Senate had at a recent public hearing chided NESREA for arbitrarily sealing base stations which it has found to be contributing to the poor quality of telecom service in the country.

Reminiscent of the public hearing

At the hearing, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, had categorically sought from NESREA if it had unsealed 52 Base stations, to which the Agency's Director of Inspection and Enforcement Mrs. Ronke Soyombo, replied saying "no Sir. Because most of them contravened the laws and we have about 39 of them in the courts, they are already in the courts, sir".

Her response was said to have drawn serious flaks from a top member of the Committee, who moved for a scheduling of an urgent session to resolve the matter between the NCC and NESREA because of the implications to the industry.

The senator charged at Soyombo saying, "your answer is not satisfactory. I don't know the law that allows you to physically go and lock up a base station, or switch off a base station or lock it down. I think that quite a number of organisations are behaving from the throwback of the military era, and secondly, in the light of the report of the World Health Organizations, what is the basis of your actions", he queried the NESREA official.

He said: "What we are saying today is very fundamental because there has been a lot of arbitrary exercise of power, not just by NESREA but by lots of agencies in Nigeria and yet these same people, who behave in this manner, are the first to accuse the National Assembly and the politicians, and yet the little authority that you give to them, they get very tyrannical and apply power arbitrarily."

The Director of Telecom and Postal Services in the Ministry of Communications Technology, Engr. John Ayodele, who represented the Minister, then urged the Senate Committee to give a chance to the Minister of Environment and her counterpart in the Communications Technology, as they had already scheduled a meeting within a week of the public hearing to resolve all the issues related to indiscriminate closure of base stations by NESREA.

Our source said that one of the recommendations for the meeting was that all base stations constructed before the advent of NESREA Act will remain as they are, as they were not built under that law and there will be no more powers to close base stations because the law says they will first go to court.

He added that the Committee is considering holding another public hearing to know why the two ministries have failed to resolve the matter while the controversy has continued to rage as there were no indications that the base stations have been unsealed yet.

It would be recalled that at the first meeting of the two ministers, it was agreed that all base stations that met with NCC requirements of 5-Meter setback be unsealed, but reports said that the NESREA insisted that the operators pay the fines before they are unsealed.

Are NCC, NESREA fights endemic?

But the struggle between NCC and NESREA over who would regulate the operators is not new. Roughly two years ago, NCC and NESREA clashed over the issue of who ought to police and regulate erection of telecommunications masts in the telecommunications sector.

The clash was an offshoot of the decommissioning by NESREA of a telecommunications mast belonging to Globacom for allegedly violating the country's environmental regulations. The mast, located within OAU Quarters, Maitama, Abuja, boosted the operator's signal strength around Maitama and its environs and was reportedly erected following complaints of poor quality of service in Abuja and particularly in that area.

NESREA, however, stated that the erection of the mast was in contravention of the procedure laid down for such a structure. It, therefore, shut down the base station without any recourse to the NCC, the official regulator of the sector.

The acting Executive Vice Chairman of the commission at the time, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, did not take the development lightly. He publicly criticised NESREA and warned that multiple regulation of the telecom sector would compound the problems militating against the sector and would particularly undermine efforts to improve quality of service in the sector.

The then Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey, was to later wade in with a view to finding a common ground between the two government agencies. A meeting was called to deliberate on the issue of telecom masts and their impact on the environment.

At the meeting held inside the conference room of the Ministry of Environment, Abuja, Gwandu argued that Nigeria could not have acceptable quality of service in the telecommunications sector if impediments were placed on the efforts of operators to roll out service. He stressed particularly that the gains of the past years could be frittered away if multiple regulation was allowed to take root as it would scare investors away from the sector.

"We cannot have seamless telecommunications services without installing masts and towers across the country because we do not have the infrastructure in place like other countries. We do not have fibres and wire-lines across the country. Without masts and towers there will not be communications and quality service delivery in the industry.

If telecommunications operators are not allowed to put masts and towers in certain places, communication gaps or what we call 'drop-calls' will continue to exist," he was quoted to have told the meeting also attended by top officials of NESREA.

The position of NESREA, at the meeting through its DG, Dr. Ngeri Benebo, was that the agency had a mandate to ensure that all necessary Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out before any masts was erected in any part of the country.

"We are not against any telecommunications company. Our mandate is to ensure that every base station has its Environmental Impact Assessment. Some of the telecommunication firms have put up masts without EIA even after it was agreed at a stakeholder forum that all must comply with the EIA requirement before hoisting the mast and that enforcement should commence by January 2010," she told the meeting.

While some amicable resolution was achieved at the meeting, the underlying issues subsisted and have since then kept surfacing from time to time. Indeed, only a few weeks after that peace meeting, two base stations of MTN in Abuja were shut down by NESREA, without any warrant, according to the operator. The subscribers covered by the affected base station and its environs were plunged into severe service difficulties.

Zain and Visafone were soon the next targets, as their base stations in various parts of the country were also shut down by NESREA, prompting the umbrella body of the operators, the Association of Licensed Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) to step in, warning of the dire consequences of the new trend.

President of the association, Engr Gbenga Adebayo described the development as a scourge that is slowing down the pace of growth in the sector and making it difficult for the sector to surmount the quality of service challenge. He called for laws that will protect telecom operations because of the essential nature of the service. He said that until a law is passed that on no account should any base station be shut down, there will continue to be poor quality of service and other challenges.

The Multiple Regulation scourge

However, NESREA is not the only agency of government which lays claim to the right to 'regulate' an aspect of Nigeria's blossoming telecommunications. There are a dozen others, including local and state governments, seeking to lord it over operators in the telecom sector. To show they mean business, they proceed to shut down base stations or otherwise disable the services of the operators in various parts of the country, complicating the quality of service challenge.

Only a few days ago, Lagos State government announced the formation of a new body called Urban Furniture Regulatory Unit, which the state is empowering to regulate masts and towers in Lagos. This development is followed the state's earlier effort to regulate masts and towers in Lagos through the Lagos State Infrastructure and Maintenance Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA). The industry body, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) stoutly resisted the move by seeking the protection of the court..

Everywhere around Nigeria, there is an agency or an authority lording it over operators. In Osun State, a local authority sometime ago moved in on MTN's base station in Osogbo, sealing it off for allegedly non-payment of the state's Land Use Clearance Fees. The fees were expected in respect of all the operator's base stations in the state capital.

In Ebonyi State, MTN's backbone and hub site was sealed in May 2010 by the Ebonyi State Environmental Protection Agency for what the agency called non-payment of Environmental Impact Assessment; Monitoring, Sanitation, Effluent Discharge and Environmental Support Fees for seven years, that is, from 2003.

More recently, the operator's four base transceiver stations in Imo State were sealed by officials of the State Ministry of Petroleum and Environmental Audit Report, placing tremendous strain on the operator's quality of service in the state and its environs.

In July 2010, five Airtel base transceiver stations (BTS) located in Umuahia, Abia State, were closed by the state's Task Force for reasons of non-payment of N19 million. The money was allegedly for Tower Premises Registration and Renewal fees.

In April 2011, the Abuja Municipal Management Council (AMMC) slammed MTN with a bill of N257 million for what it called annual charge and the council made spirited efforts to shut down the operator's base stations.

Airtel on its part was slammed with a bill of N262.4 million by the Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRACO). The bill was dubbed Pest/Vector Control Fees and Fumigation Charges for the years 2008-2011.

In Ondo State, the operators also got a raw deal as the state's Signage and Advertisement Agency slammed them with various bills for what it called 'network identification signages' hoisted at their BTS sites in the state.

Meanwhile, relevant stakeholders are of the view that since the sector contributes over seven percent to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the government can not just afford to trifle with it.

Common regulation to the rescue

If the National Assembly succeeds in compelling the two ministries to come up fast with the common guidelines, it may signal the beginning of sigh of relief for the operators who have long operated under the groan of multiple regulators.

Vanguard Nigeria