UGO OKEKE: THIS IS WHY NIGERIA NEEDS A NEW BASE STATIONS

The Ministry of Communications Technology has said that the country needs about 60,000 base stations in order to meet the national target of broadband penetration by 2018. During her presentation of the ministry’s achievements in the past two years to ICT stakeholders recently

, the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said that although the number of base stations has increased exponentially from 116 in 2001 to 21,000 in 2010, the growth in the deployment of base stations in the country has slowed down lately.

She said high set-up and operating costs resulting from multiple taxation are some reasons for the slow increase. Other reasons she cited are the lack of sustainable power supply and vandalism.

“Nigeria has an infrastructure deficit. The reason why the developed countries have such good service is because of good infrastructure.

“Today we have infrastructure challenges in terms of ducts and fibres that should be laid across cities. We don’t have enough ducts where fibres can pass through, so we are dependent on base stations to complete calls. If we are having these challenges and at the same time base stations are being shut down, that will worsen the Quality of service (QoS), and we all understand the implication of not having service in some locations. What would a person do in case of an emergency?”

Recently there have been complaints from phone users about service quality. People have complained about dropped calls and the poor QoS the service providers render. But analysts say QoS would be better if there were sufficient base stations.

In some parts of the country, there are blind spots where calls cannot be made, and calls drop if one passes through those areas.

The GSM technology operates through the cell system, whereby cells depend on other cells for life. This means that, to have seamless telecommunication, there has to be continuous and constant handover from one cell to another.

In the FCT for example, there have been no approvals issued for the citing of new base stations in the last two years. So even though blind spots have been identified, base stations cannot be sited because there is no approval to do so, and so service quality remains poor.

However, the telecoms operators in Nigeria have already committed to spending at least $6 billion in infrastructure to help deploy and equip more base stations, thereby increasing broadband penetration in the country.

In India, which has about 400,000 base stations, the government has mandated that 50 percent of rural sites be powered by renewable energy by next year. The decision comes as the Indian government, which heavily subsidises diesel, looks to lessen the country’s reliance on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

By 2020, 75 percent of stations in rural areas and 33 percent of stations in urban areas in that country will need to run on alternative energy, according to Mrinmoy Chattaraj, a campaigner with Greenpeace India’s Climate and Energy Unit.

Chattaraj says the move will likely drive down the price of renewable-powered base stations for other regions with low electrification rates, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nigeria needs to build more base stations and take a cue from India on its alternate power policy by advising telecoms companies to build base stations that have solar installations with battery backups.

It costs about $50,000 to run a base station in Nigeria using diesel generators, but it would cost only $15,000 to run a base station with solar installations and battery backup.

The solar installations are expensive to install upfront, but the yearly operational expenditure is comparatively lower by far.