Nigeria’s works ministry is finalising a regulation that will criminalise fibre damage after fixing cable cuts caused ₦27 billion in losses to MTN and Airtel. The regulation will enforce stiffer penalties on offenders and focus on underground network cables, as several laws already criminalise vandalism, according to Bloomberg.
Nigeria has a long-standing vandalism problem that causes billions of dollars of damage but for the telco sector, one of Nigeria’s most productive sectors, vandalism can cause several hours of outages and severe losses.
Last year, MTN, the country’s largest telco, suffered more than 6,000 cuts on its fibre network and several hours of outages. The telco spent ₦11 billion to move 2,500 kilometres of vulnerable fibre cables between 2022 and 2023, which led the telco to complain to the government that it was spending billions of naira to fix damaged broadband cables.
The regulation will also focus on construction companies, as they often damage these underground cables. In February, MTN’s customers suffered more than five hours of outages after fibre damage in three different locations was caused by a road…
Muktar Oladunmade
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https://techcabal.com/2024/04/19/nigerian-government-will-criminalise-cable-damage/
