States Increase Cost of Row for Telecoms Infrastructure

Despite the direction made by Dr. Isa Pantami, the mininster of communications and digital economy 72 hours ago to governors to comply with the N145 RoW charges, fourteen states, including Lagos, Kano, Anambra, Ondo, Cross River, Kogi, Osun, Kaduna, Enugu, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Imo, Kebbi and Gombe, have increased the cost of Right of Way (RoW) for telecoms infrastructure.

The minister urged the governors to comply with the N145 per linear metre on federal roads but some of these states increased the cost of RoW to as much as N3,000 and N6,000 per linear metre. The governors rather increased the fees instead of complying with the minster's direction.

The effect of this action would be that the cost of voice and data may not come down as telecoms companies will most likely transfer the additional cost to the telecoms consumers

Some of these agencies and ministries in the varios states include, the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA), State Information Technology Agency (SITA) of Ondo, Cross River State Infrastructure Safety and Regulatory Agency (CRISRA), Kogi State Environmental Protection Board and Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority, Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KSIRS), Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KASUPDA), Osun State Ministry of Environment and Sanitation, Anambra State Internal Revenue Services, Enugu State Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, Adamawa State Ministry of Environment, Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (Imo ENTRACO), Kebbi State Ministry of Environment and Solid Minerals and Gombe State Internal Revenue Board It was also learnt that some of the states refused to collect the old rates for RoW and are no longer issuing RoW licences in their various states.

The Lagos state agency, LASIMRA particularly increased RoW fee from N500 per linear metre to N5, 000 per linear metre.

It should be known that a single telecoms operator needs RoW covering thousands of kilometres.

An official of LASIMRA speaking to newsmen at the weekend said that the new management of the agency would hold discussions with the telecoms operators to reach a common ground. However, some of the other states involved in the increasement, Cross River, Kaduna, Kano, Ondo are prepared to negotiate with the telecoms companies

Telecoms operators across networks had blamed the poor telecoms service currently being experienced by subscribers on the refusal of the federal and state government agencies to grant the operators the RoW licence to lay more fibre optic cables in cities.

Telecoms subscribers have continued to face networks challenges, ranging from incessant drop calls and poor connectivity to delays in delivering text messages, among others.

But the operators in separate interviews said they had envisaged heavy surge at festivity periods like Christmas and New Year seasons and had long requested for RoW licence that would enable them to expand their networks by laying more broadband fibre optic cables.

They, however, stated that their request was rejected by the various government agencies, forcing them to maintain the available network that is not sufficient to manage the peak periods.