By John Awe
(A newspaper feature article written by John Awe to dispel vicious rumours and conspiracy theories that the Covid-19 lockdown was actually ordered by the Federal Government of Nigeria to enable telecom operators to implement 5G, a technology which they blamed for Covid-19 symptoms)
The onset of the ongoing lockdown imposed by the Federal Government to halt the spread of the virulent virus, Covid-19, heralded an insidious insinuation against a sector that has been one of Nigeria’s crown jewels in the last one and a half-decade, the telecommunications sector.
Authored by an unknown source, but trumpeted loudly by many, including a handful of known figures, the unsalutary rumour suggested that the lockdown was ordered by the Federal Government in Lagos and Abuja to enable telecom operators to surreptitiously lay 5G fibre-optic cables across Nigeria. One version of the rumour alleged that the laying of the cables in Ikeja was responsible for the death of some rodents in Computer Village in Ikeja! The sheer iniquity of this contrived hypothesis is mind-boggling.
Interestingly, the unfounded rumour gained fast ascendancy through the efficiency of the very infrastructure being vilified. Many people received the WhatsApp messages and short video clips and forwarded them to others, oblivious of the fact that their messages coursed through several kilometres of fibre optic cables diligently laid under the ground by telecom operators.
This rumour speaks volumes about the lack of understanding of the telecommunications infrastructure that has made life very easy for Nigerians and significantly boosted the national economy. Worse still, it betrayed a lack of appreciation of the efforts and the massive investment of the operators over the years in a rather tough business environment.
Without mincing words, the fibre-optic cable is one of the best things to happen to telecommunication all over the world. It is several thousands of optical fibres housed in a protective, insulated jacket used for transmitting information in the form of light. Fibre optic cables have revolutionized the world of network communication ever since their inception nearly four decades ago. They are a more advanced alternative to the traditional methods of networking which use metallic wires.
Indeed, fibre-optic cables have been part of Nigeria’s telecommunications infrastructure for decades. Any Nigerian who is about 50 years of age and with any technical background would readily recall the famous South Atlantic 3 (Sat-3) cable which the then National Telecom Carrier, NITEL, owned together with a coalition of over 30 telecommunications companies from across the world.
It was a fibre-optic cable, albeit, a transatlantic one, linking Nigeria to the rest of the world. For many years it was the best thing that happened to Nigeria’s telecom sector and any misfortune that befell it by way of damage to it by ocean liners translated into massive disruption in Nigeria’s business environment, as many major companies relied either directly or indirectly on the connectivity provided by the infrastructure for their smooth operation.
Today, the country has been liberated from that precarious situation. There is Glo-1, wholly owned by Nigeria’s National Carrier, Globacom, and launched sometime in 2010. It is a submarine fibre-optic cable linking Europe to West Africa. Aside from Glo-1, there are a slew of other fibre-optic cables crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean and delivering international bandwidth to the West Coast of Africa.
Broadband penetration in Nigeria currently stands at about 38 per cent, solely driven by such deep-pocket operators as Globacom and the others in the private sector. They are also required to facilitate the realization of the objective of taking Nigeria’s broadband penetration to 70 per cent by the year 2021 by making additional investments. This explains why there will continue to be digging of the ground and laying of fibre-optic cables across Nigeria.
Already, each of the operators has invested massively in fibre-optic deployment in the major cities and across the entire country. Nigeria’s second national carrier, Globacom, for instance, has a fibre-optic cable network spanning thousands of kilometres, covering almost every part of the country, giving its subscribers crystal-clear voice calls and seamless internet connectivity. Together with the microwave network, the fibre network delivers the connectivity that people require to boost their productivity at work or enhance their entertainment at home or on the go.
People who are abreast of developments in the telecommunications sector would recall that Globacom equally recently announced that it was finalizing a massive fibre network expansion to cover more parts of Nigeria and contribute its quota to achieving the broadband penetration target of 70 per cent by the year 2021. Achieving the 70 per cent target will provide internet access to millions of Nigerians especially in the hinterlands and this will, in turn, boost the economy as the link between broadband penetration and economic prosperity of a country has been conclusively demonstrated in many studies.
The unceasing fibre network expansion by the operators is also aimed at improving the experience of telecom users. In essence, when you see workmen trying to install fibre-optic cable, there is nothing to be afraid of. They are working in the interest of every telecom user, nay, every Nigerian because the service they are rendering directly impacts the lives of a man in the street with a phone in his pocket.
Even for people who do not use a phone, if any such person exists in today’s world, they are still beneficiaries of the telecommunications infrastructure in question in many other ways. For instance, the Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) that dispense cash to bank customers across Nigeria communicate with their back servers through the massive telecommunications infrastructure including the several thousands of kilometres of fibre-optic cables that have been laid or will still be laid across Nigeria by the likes of the operators. The old man or woman in the village who is able to talk to his children and grandchildren thousands of kilometres away in Europe or the US and see them via video calls is enjoying the benefits of telecommunications infrastructure.
So many cable television and streaming services that people are enjoying in the comfort of their homes or offices are all riding on this self-same telecom infrastructure.
Telecom operators who have taken Nigeria thus far deserve commendation and not vilification. Their workmen out in the street labouring to put telecom pipes in the ground are helping to build critical infrastructure that will help Nigeria to play efficiently in the fast-emerging digital economy.
New technology indeed excites some level of fear in many people. In 1877, the New York Times published an article agonizing over what the writer called the ‘atrocious nature’ of the telephone that Alexandra Bell had just invented. The misgivings and phobia the article expressed were reechoed by other writers of the time. Today the story is different.
Nigerians should ignore the divisive and panic mongering messages aimed at demonizing telecommunications infrastructure. In the words of Dinesh Paliwal, technology has enabled an environment “where information is constantly fed to us on a real-time basis” willy nilly. However, he opines that each person is responsible for controlling and organizing what he or she consumes.
The Globacoms of this world deserve our undiluted adulation.
