Reps to tackle infrastructure vandalism in telecoms industry

The House of Representatives has said that it is already contemplating enacting a law that will make vandalism of telecoms infrastructure in the nation a criminal act punishable under the law.Speaking during a tour of MTN facility in Lagos during the week, the Acting Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Mr. Usman Bawa, said the House would soon put in place a motion to enact appropriate laws to protect telecoms equipment in the country.Bawa, who led a 10-man delegation to the MTN facility, said, "We are not unaware of the various challenges facing the operators, especially in Abuja, where they have been prevented by the Ministry of Environment from building additional base stations. However, we would see how we can address the issue through an Act that will make government agencies and other individuals see telecoms equipment as critical national security infrastructure."He also promised that the legislators would look into the challenges telecoms operators were facing with the Ministry of Environment in Abuja.According to him, the House will ensure that the environment ministry will allow mobile operators build more base stations, which will help improve the poor Quality of Services in the country."We have discussed with the regulator and the Nigerian Communications Commission that we are coming up with an Act that would actually guard telecoms infrastructure, just like the law protecting the facility of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, from being tampered with. "When we come up with the Act, we will invite the service providers on how best they can actually put in place measures to guard them and their operational investments."Bawa said the House committee had also resolved to work with relevant agencies and network operators to achieve better operating environment in the country.He said, "This will help to boost QoS. We got that report that authorities in Abuja are preventing operators from building base stations and we have spoken with the NCC. I believe the NCC is also trying to sort out that problem and we are also working with the Ministry of Environment to find a lasting solution to that problem."He reiterated that the House Committee in conjunction with the NCC had resolved to penalise people found to be vandalising telecoms infrastructure.The committee chairman said that the House was aware of the major challenges of multiple taxation and regulations militating against operators. He, however, assured them that the proposed Act would streamline the issue and allow a unified regulation and taxation system.
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