Telecom
Phase3 Telecom Enhances Lagos –Northern Network Backbone Redundancy

Carrier services provider, Phase3 Telecom, has made a significant improvement to its Lagos-Northern Nigeria network with the provision of backbone redundancy on the route.
The firm, West Africa’s only electricity grid aerial optic fiber carrier said with the provision of the backbone redundancy, quality of service to its clients would now be significantly enhanced as an alternate route for all traffic on its network between Lagos and Abuja had been provisioned.
According to Mr. Olusola Teniola, chief operating officer, Phase3 Telecom, the achievement of the backbone redundancy was the fulfillment of a vision of the firm to ensure that its network would always be available to users in the event of any eventuality.
In line with our determination to continually improve our services to our customers (IP and Clear channel), this backbone redundancy, effectively provides our clients currently enjoying peering, transit and MPLS VPN solutions and services from Lagos, a more reliable solution for their traffic, “ he said.
He added that the new system now has a provision in which load has been configured to equally balance at peak periods, thereby eliminating clogs, saturation and bottlenecks.
In addition, he explained that the system allows traffic load to choose the least saturated path during off peak periods and failover entirely in the event of discontinuity on any of the two routes.
With this new arrangement, essentially our uptime has been greatly increased and we will see a 99.999% efficiency leap in service delivery for all our IP clients,” Teniola added.
Telecom
Fines: Meta Threatens to Shut Down Facebook, Instagram in Nigeria

Meta may shut down its Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in protest against the substantial fines imposed by multiple government agencies.
The tech giant has been ordered to pay nearly $300 million in fines in Africa’s most populous nation, following regulatory demands which Meta described as “unrealistic.”
In July 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), imposed a $220 million fine on Meta for allegedly discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers.
The commission stated that Meta had failed to engage a Data Protection Compliance Organisation and had not submitted a Nigeria Data Protection Regulation audit report for two consecutive years.
Similarly, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), demanded $37.5 million over unapproved advertising, while the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), announced a $32.8 million fine for an alleged data privacy breach.
Meta challenged the decisions at the Federal High Court in Abuja but was unsuccessful, as the court upheld the fines in a ruling delivered last week.
The court directed the company to comply with payment by the end of June, but Meta has indicated it may not do so, according to the BBC.
“The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” the company stated in court documents.
Responding to the NDPC’s assertion that Meta’s data processing could expose Nigerian users to health and financial risks, the company said the agency had failed to “properly interpret the laws guiding data privacy.”
Telecom
Telecoms Services Resume in Kogi State as Telcos, Govt Resolve Dispute

Telecommunications services disrupted in Kogi State have resumed following a resolution of the dispute between MTN Nigeria and the state government, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has said.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of ALTON, told TVC News that the issues that led to the shutdown of telecom masts in the state, primarily affecting MTN, had been addressed, paving the way for service restoration.
TVC News earlier reported that businessmen and women were counting their losses as they suffered the impact of a shut down of telecommunication service in Kogi State
Over the past two weeks, telecoms connectivity had been erratic, with competing brands experiencing glitches, particularly in the Lokoja metropolis.
The State government suspended the operations of some telecom services citing unpaid taxes and fibre-related dues.
The shutdown stemmed from a compliance dispute between MTN and the Kogi State Utility Infrastructure Management and Compliance Agency, which accused the telecom giant of violating operational rules and under-declaring the extent of its optic fibre network coverage in the state.
Telecom
Banks Settle ₦160Bn USSD Debt to Telcos, Ending Five-Year Dispute

The protracted Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) debt misunderstanding between the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and telecommunications operators appears to have been resolved.
This was confirmed by the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, Thursday, March 1, when he appeared on Arise TV to speak on the firm’s first-quarter 2025 result, where the telecommunications company reported over N1 trillion in revenue earnings.
Recall that the USSD debt had been a major issue between the DMBs and telcos and had lasted for about five years.
In the third quarter of 2024, the telcos had threatened to withdraw their service over the lingering debt, which was around N200 billion at the time. This led to the swift intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and an agreement was reached on payment.
As of November 2024, the NCC put the debt at N160 billion. However, earlier this year, when it appeared the banks were not forthcoming with payments, the NCC directed the telcos to withdraw the USSD services from debt-owning DMBs, where about 18 banks were listed.
This directive prompted the banks to look inward and start to comply with an earlier circular signed by the CBN and NCC, which articulated the payment patterns for the debt.
Speaking, on Arise TV this morning, May 1, Toriola confirmed that the matter has been fully resolved and that banks have made payments.
“I can confirm that the matter has been fully resolved. We have received payments in full. Special thanks to the CBN, NCC, the banks, and other stakeholders that intervened in the matter,” the MTN CEO stated.
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