NATCOMS cautions Lagos over mast demolition

THE National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has condemned the action of a new agency in Lagos, under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development called Urban Furniture Regulatory Unit (UFRU) for demolition of telecommunications base transceiver stations (BTS) in some parts of the state.The new agency, under the leadership of Joe Igbokwe, according to NATCOMS should exercise restraints in the manner with which it was going with its duties.According to the National President of NATCOMS, Deolu Ogunbanjo, in a statement in Lagos on Monday, BTS is an integral part of an efficient telecommunications system that connects two phone users for voice conversation, text message transmission and data relay.He explained that in order to achieve quality service delivery, a state or city is usually divided into zones, technically known as Cell sites and BTS are installed in each zone to guarantee efficient telecoms signals. He said that absence or inadequacy of BTS creates a couple of problems, such as call-drops, data transmission failure, overloading of available cell sites, undermining security of phone users, decapitating the economic empowerment of phone users among others.'And because of the pivotal role of BTS, a telecoms infrastructure, it is a critical national asset and for this reason, alot of care need to be exercised in dealing with issue surrounding it,' he stated.Ogunbanjo said that NATCOMS was not against the government generating revenue to finance its laudable projects, but the agency's resort to self-help and unprovoked aggression was a total negation of the rule of law professed by the state government.He said: 'Our concern here is that the illegal acts of the agency stated above affected adversely the telecoms needs of our members in the areas where such illegalities were carried out, and they have complained to us.'The agency's excuse for such an illegal act was stated to be protection of the lives of people in the areas affected, just as we know that it is just a subterfuge. But if the agency had had a second thought, it would have found out that its acts complained about endangering the lives of the citizens much more than a fallen telecoms BTS, if any. Just imagine in amoment of security challenges such as discovery of planted bomb, kidnapping, rioting, armed robbery siege, medical emergency, earth tremor etc, when those distress calls need to be made and the BTS are no longer there to relay the signals, the ensuing perils would be worse.
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