LAGOS: The President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Titi Omo-Ettu has threatened that Nigerian telecommunication operators will drag the Federal Government to court. He said that it will be taken to court by December 2013 if it fails in its promise to improve public power supply. The operators complained that the poor electricity supply is worrisome and would cost them N45.9 billion in 2012 for the purchase of diesel to fuel their generators. It was disclosed that telephone operators use 25 million liters of diesel monthly to fuel 20,000 generators located at over 15,000 cell sites in the country. Omo-Ettu, said, “At a current pump price of N153 per liter of diesel, operators will spend N3.82 billion to fuel their generators monthly and N45.9bn in 2012. Other telecom players will make even more expenditure on alternative power.” He said at a stakeholders' forum on ‘Harnessing Communications Technology as a Catalyst for National Development' that the current situation is worrisome as operators provide alternative energy to power their operations, build their own base stations and backbone networks. This, he said contributes massively to tariff increase and lowers quality of service (QoS). The ATCON boss called for a review and a proper solution to the problems plaguing the telecoms sector so they can provide good services to Nigerians.
