Business
Telecoms Industry Needs 80,000 Base Stations — NCC
The Nigerian Communi-
cations Commission (NCC) has said that the telecoms industry in the country needed about 80,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) to render better services to customers.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, said this at the 2nd West African Conference on Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Exposure and Health in Lagos.
The Tide source reports that the conference, organised by the commission, has the theme ‘’EMF in a Highly Connected Society: Understanding the Myths and Realities’’.
Juwah, who was represented by the Commissioner for Technical Services, NCC, Mr Ubale Maska, said as at December 2013, the industry had 29,000 base stations across the country.
He said that the telecoms industry was passing through very interesting times, with the growth in telecommunications overtaking predictions that had been made in the past.
“In our country Nigeria, for instance, we now have a total number of 134 million connected lines and a teledensity of 96 per cent, with about 29,000 base stations for both GSM and CDMA service providers as at December 2013.
“This is against a total estimated national requirement of about 70,000 to 80,000 BTS
“Naturally, this means that more and more such infrastructure must be put in place by operators to ensure seamless communications,’’ the EVC said.
He said that although there was still a need for wired lines, wireless access remained more realistic and almost exclusively the only means of connection for the country.
Juwah said that this was given the challenges in the country’s sub region associated with wired roll-out.
According to him, information and communication technologies pervade all aspects of modern living, whether economic activity, healthcare, education, or environmental protection.