"Epileptic" power supply to blame for poor telecoms

"Power supply is a major concern for us and we're doing everything in our capacity to remedy this," he said.

Briefing newsmen in Lagos, the Association expressed concern over what it described as a worsening power supply situation, saying it would create a major set back for telecommunications development in Nigeria.

ALTON, he said, is aware of the declining quality of service in recent times, and expressed concern about it, alleging that part of the contributing factor is the problem of power supply.

"If you trace the movement and routing of typical calls, and a number of dropped calls today are traceable to failure of network site associated with power supplies," he said.

ALTON also said that this problem might erode the gains of telecommunications, which has become a way of life for many Nigerians, irrespective of trade and status.

The group said that most of its membership now operates on a privately generated power supply, which is very expensive to maintain.

"Quite a number of our network sites are running mostly on local generators in some areas for weeks non-stop," Adebayo said.

The ALTON chairman (who was accompanied at the brief by the ALTON's publicity secretary, Damian Udeh; Treasurer, Oladipupo Alabi; and ex-officio, Tosin Oni) pointed out that the nation's economy, and indeed the industry, would not continue to grow with the epileptic state of the public power supply system as it is.

Therefore, ALTON, called on the government to solve, with immediate effect, all problems associated with electricity supply, stressing that the economic cost and associated loss on the part of the operators and the nation as a whole is too high.

ALTON assured the Nigerian telecom subscribers that its members are striving to improve on the network qualities in areas that are within its control.

"We assure the public that on an on-going basis, operators will continue to improve on the quality of service," he declared.

Published courtesy of