ALTON Seeks Compensation for Destruction of Infrastructure

ASSOCIATION of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has called on Federal Government to extend its compensation for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to telecommunications operators for the losses they incurred in the North-eastern part of the country due the activities of Boko Haram.

Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said that “because as we have internally displaced people, so also we have internally displaced Telecom Operators.”

“It is sad that nobody is talking about the service providers that lost several millions of naira to destruction of their infrastructure. The government should compensate the service providers as without that, may not want to go back and repair the damaged sites in the affected states. Effort is being made to meet with relevant authorities for resolution.

He decried continuous vandalism and closure of operators’ base stations which has impacted negatively on quality of service delivery by operators.

“Unfortunately, our regulator has not taken enough responsibility of the problems in the industry, rather, allowing operators to face these problems alone,” he said.

“We discovered that despite the penalties and sanctions the issue of quality of service is still the same. We operate one network in