The consequences of vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, "Vandalism is the crime of deliberately damaging things, especially public property. Though the dictionary defines Vandalism as a deliberate act, it can also be rightly said that Vandalism can be an in-deliberate act as we would realize in the course of this article.
Vandalism of telecommunications installations has become a frequent occurrence in the nation today and this is very disheartening. Vandalism of telecoms infrastructure can be a deliberate or in-deliberate act as the case may be.
Deliberate Vandalism of telecommunications equipment is most at times as a result of hoodlum's activities in the area. This is very rampant in the North eastern part of the country where the Boko Haram insurgency thrives. A lot of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) had been vandalized or more rightly put, destroyed due to terrorist activities in these areas. This has led to unavoidable communications hitches such drop calls, no network coverage e.t.c. in these locations. Telecoms companies wallow in pains as they count their losses whenever their equipment are destroyed by terrorist.
Telecommunications operators lose millions of naira to Vandal's activities which affects the quality of service delivery and a lot of money is spent to resuscitate damaged equipment.
About N24,750,000 is expended during the installation of a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) together with its towers, special antennas and two generators to power the station. So whenever a Base Transceiver Station  (BTS) is destroyed, it can be imagined what the telecommunications company has lost.
In-deliberate Vandalism on the other hand occurs as a result of construction work around areas where  telecoms installations are present. A very good example is during the construction of roads in areas where fibre optic cables are laid. This can lead to cable cut resulting in telecommunications breakdown.
It is on record that an average of 70 fibre optic cables are cut on  a monthly bases due to construction work across Nigeria.
MTN in particular said due to fibre optic cable cut, it had lost of network signal in about 1000 base station across the country recently.
Therefore telecoms companies are appealing to the general public to be vigilante and report any suspicious activities around telecoms installations.  

The pleasure is my whenever am permitted to share my surface knowledge of ICT with the rest of the world. Become a WIZIAN today! Please scroll down to the bottom of this blog and subscribe to the newsletter and get updates through emails. Not forgetting to leave a comment below after reading this post.