How poor electricity is affecting telecom quality service

Since the advent of mobile telecommunications operators who deployed the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology about 16 years ago, one critical issue that has dominated Nigeria’s telecommunications space has been poor quality of service (QoS) occasioned by inadequate power supply.Despite the licencing and privatisation of electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) and Generating Companies (GENCOs) in the last few years to improve power supply, not much has improved in electricity such that telecom subscribers have to contend with mobile operators battling to provide their own electricity power.
Poor quality of service can be seen in the form of dropped calls, undelivered short message service (SMS), poor mobile internet service, infrastructure vandalisation, theft of diesel at base stations by hoodlums, etc.
According to the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), telecom subscribers in Nigeria lose an average of N730 billion annually to poor quality service. The ATCON said this could have been addressed if there was steady power supply from the mains so that telecom operators could connect their networks directly to the national grid as it is done on other countries. However, in Nigeria, mobile operators generate and distribute their own power supply for telecom services.
For instance, MTN Nigeria spends N30.5 billion annually on the purchase of diesel. This amount, experts said, could be used to build another 5,000 base stations which could have helped improve the quality of service in Nigeria and probably contribute to lower call rates.
A telecom expert said that Nigeria’s patchy power infrastructure has long been an obstacle for the country’s telecoms operators. In a country with about 25,000-30,000 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and a need for about twice that number over the next 10 years, the power infrastructure challenge is especially nagging. As at 2012, MTN rolled out over 6,700 2G sites and over 1,600 3G sites bringing the total number of sites to over 7,000.Read More