Since the emergence of the mobile telephone, combined subscription has inched close to the 10 million mark and many more are yet to sign up. The potentials are still enormous given the fact that total population under the licensed territory (Tanzania) is close to 40 million people.

Good as it may sound that we can now connect to the world without the endless wait and shoddy services that characterized the pre-GSM era, when Ttcls monopoly hold sway. Despite all the rapid expansion and coverage in most cities nation wide, quality of service issues seems to the albatross of the mobile operators.

Quality of mobile phone services is commonly the most discussed topic outside politics and energy issues which we are daily confounded with. Even the National Assembly had already debated on it! While the national regulator, TCRA, in many instances and at different forums reinforced the importance of provisioning high quality services to millions of subscribers, the stark reality is that the situation seems to be getting worse by the day.

TCRA also initiated the consumer outreach and consumer parliament to resolve subscriber’s frustrations which had taken another dimension with subscribers forming associations and even going further to advocate service boycotts in protest against poor service delivery and in some extreme cases, initiated court cases against mobile operators.

In the midst of allegations, accusations and claims by operators and subscribers alike, what the entire population has failed to look at genuinely are some points that operators are raising.

Some time ago, TIGO had reasons to alert the public about its facilities that were maliciously damaged. Important components of mobile telephony technology are the radio equipments which are mounted on towers and mast all over the towns and cities. Fiber-optic cables also carry traffic crisscrossing the national boundaries .

Recently we all witnessed massive degradation of services across all the networks and despite all efforts, its seems the problem is beyond them. Most service disruption is directly link to the handiwork of vandals and community agitators. In many instances, workers and their sub contractors are denied access to the base station sites to service power generators and other equipments, fiber optics unearth from the ground and severed, diesel theft and generator vandals. The irony is that the communities that now turned vandals at some point clamored for the Base stations to be sited in their community.

Most of the demands of the communities are unrealistic, ranging from multiple payments for acquired site properties, road construction, powering of communities and even scholarships!!! These are not the duties of companies that pay all forms of taxes to government. Though some of the activities of the operators do impact the environment negatively sometimes, care should be taken to ensure strict compliance with environmental regulations to curb noise pollution from generating sets, spillages from diesel and used engine oil which can pollute source of community waters.

Community empowerment programs can be implemented through engaging locals as site security, civil repairs works and immediate remedial repairs whenever their activities impact on the communities negatively. Mobile operators should also leverage on site where some basic infrastructure that can support their services exists. They can leverage on the branch network of banks and as they roll out new Bank Branches, they make provision for tower erections on the properties on a rental basis. This offers some level of security. Implementation of integrated maintenance of cell sites, will also reduce numbers and frequency of site visits for maintenance purposes. Increasing the storage tanks for diesel will greatly help in reducing frequent top up visits which seems to be a lucrative target for community extortions.

With communities and vandals taking its toll on the operations on the mobile operators and high cost of subscribers acquisition in face of keen competition, it is only natural that the subscribers will be at the receiving end through poor services and high tariffs. Just like crude oil production where you need a maze of pipelines to deliver contents likewise the telecommunications services too. The base stations might look like a stand alone installation but operationally, they are inter connected and linked with many others elsewhere and when one goes down, it might lead to disruption of services or a near collapse in a locality .

So the next time you try to make that important call and it does not connect, it does not mean that the TIGO ,ZAIN AND TTCL are not alive to their responsibility but maybe area boys and your community people have just tampered with a diesel hose that feeds the generator which powers the base station in your community or they have just chased away telecoms workers from site and you are denied access to reach your loved ones via your mobile phone.

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Yona Fares Maro
I.T. Specialist and Digital Security Consultant

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From: Yona Fares Maro
Date: Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Subject: Mobile Operators and Their Host Communities