NATCOMS Urges Revival Of Telephony Project

The President, Association of Telecommunications Subscribers
(NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, on Tuesday called for the speedy revival of
the rural telephony project in the country.

Ogunbanjo told The Tide in Lagos that the call became
necessary to address the dire need for telecommunications services in
un-serviced and under-served communities.

He said that the revival of the service would bridge the
telecommunications divide between rural and urban settlements.

Our correspondent reports that the Federal Government had
last year announced the suspension of the National Rural Telephony Project
(NRTP) which was started in 2001, due to the poor execution.

The first phase of the project was to cover 218 local
government areas and also provide over 636,256 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA) lines in all the council areas.

The NATCOMS president said that inadequate basic
telecommunications penetration in the rural areas was adversely affecting the
quality of life of the rural population.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission should bring
competent telecommunications operators that could operate the service to
penetrate telecommunications service to the rural areas.

“I believe with this, the rural telephony service will
become alive again”, he said.

Ogunbanjo advised the Federal Government to collaborate with
the telecoms operators to deploy the latest telecommunications technology to
serve the un-served areas in the country.

“Rural telephony should be revived as telecommunications
remain the catalyst for encouraging the growth of agricultural, extractive and
manufacturing industries in the rural areas,” Ogunbanjo said.

According to him, the scheme would also enable
telecommunications providers to prove lower telephony tariff to the rural
communities.

“The urban centres have been benefiting from the latest
telephony technologies, while the rural areas are yet to enjoy the dividend of
communications in the country.

“In addition, over 40 million people living in the outlaying
areas have been waiting a long time for telephony service,” he said.