Anudu, Swift Network MD Calls for Law to Protect IT Infrastructure

Charles Anudu, managing director, Swift Networks Limited has urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the bill to recognise telecommunications equipment as critical national resource.

The call he said has become necessary following the spate of destruction of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in some parts of the country

Speaking to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek in Lagos, Anudu decried destruction of continued vandalism of ICT equipment which cost companies billions annually to provide and maintain.

Fiber optic cables are major building blocks in the telecommunication infrastructure because of their high bandwidth capabilities but have been targets of malicious and unintended damages.

According to Anudu his company on various occasion have witnessed two to three fiber cuts per day, which adds to the burden of doing business and delivery quality service to Nigerians.

Apart from various constructions works on-going in some parts of Lagos where most of telecom companies operations are majorly based, activities of ‘uniformed’ communities and touts place daunting tasks on the operators.

He then called on the National Assembly to pronounce telecom infrastructure as public infrastructure as way of saving the souls (SOS) of the operators.

“When the internet is slow it is as a result of combination of so many factors. It could be that the fiber links have been cut. What the customer wants is to get connected on a click, within a few minutes.

“For instance, someone in Iyana Ipaja may want to connect and the link routing from there through Ikeja, Surulere and other links to Victoria Island (V.I), you will discover that the fiber may have been compromised or cut. When that happens, that call is routed through Ikorodu-Epe-Ajah before connecting in V.I. and such back-up is designed to carry a fraction of the load. But in the example given you will discover that everything is channeled though that route.

“The other way to imagine it by assuming that the third mainland bridge is closed; people will still move, but slower. Or there is a heavy rainfall and Western Avenue is flooded, it will also slow down traffic within the axis. Sometimes, there are community issues like area-boys (touts) draining the diesel from the base stations, sometimes they use cranes to remove power generators.