The President of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, had sought the Federal Government’s assistance to enable networks operators improve on the quality of their services.

He told our correspondent in Lagos that the fines, recently imposed on telecoms operators, would not guarantee improved services to over 90 million subscribers.

According to him, government should accept the challenges of network disruption as a collective problem and find a lasting solution to it.

He said that the government should address the problem of power, multiple taxation and regulations that were hindering the service providers from delivering quality services.

“Government cannot fold its arms and watch the disruption in our networks as this may affect the security of lives and livelihood of Nigerians that depend on the services of these operators.

“Although the fine will make them to sit tight, but no amount of fine will solve neither the epileptic power nor the incidences of multiple taxation and conflicting regulations militating against the operators.

“Subscribers are still demanding for quality of service and value for their money, but the government needs to improve the operating environment for the telecoms operators to thrive,’’ Ogunbanjo said.

He said that the Federal Government should check the frequent interference by its agencies, ministries and other departments in the name of collecting taxes.

“Over the years, telecoms companies have been contending with the challenges of accidental damages to their infrastructure, especially in violence-prone areas and construction sites.

“The frequent damage to the infrastructure is responsible for the poor services to subscribers.

“Unfortunately, each time the operators experience sabotage to their facilities, subscribers are at the receiving end because the damage causes poor service,’’ he said.

Ogunbanjo, however, advised telecommunications operators to also upgrade their network to meet the growing number of subscribers.

He decried the situation where over 100 million mobile phone subscribers still grappled with problem of poor services.

According to him, it is worrisome that network operators lack the capacity to cope with the increasing call traffic generated by subscribers.

The NATCOMS president advised government to declare telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure to ensure that they were not tampered with.