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 telecoms 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 telecoms 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.
Telecoms 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 telecoms 
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.
It gladdens my heart when ever am
permitted to share the surface, faint and minute knowledge that have about ICT
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