Lanre Ajayi is ATCON president till 2014

Lanre Ajayi, new president, ATCON

The chief executive officer of Pinet Informatics, Mr. Lanre Ajayi has emerged the new national president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

His election came in the wake of the general election of ATCON which held immediately after its 2012 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos at the weekend and he takes over from Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, the chief executive officer, Telecom Answers Associates.

Mr. Ajayi whose emergence was unopposed, was the immediate past president of the Nigeria Internet Group (NiG) and is currently serving on the board of Generic Name Supporting Organisation (GNSO) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global Internet coordinating agency.

Executive Secretary, ATCON, Mr. Ajibola Olude confirmed that Mr. Ajayi leads six other members of the National Executive Council (NEC), including Mr. Olusola Teniola of Phase3 Telecom emerged first Vice-President , Engr. Anthony Nwosu is the second Vice President.

Others are Mr. David O. Roberts of CeBit Park Limited retained his position as the General Secretary of the association alongside Mrs. Aderonke Adeyegbe who came in as the Treasurer, Mr. Sunday Oyekanmi Gbenjo, Coordinator, Customer Equipment Dealer, Mr. Akinlabi Akin Akinbo. Coordinator, Consulting Group.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Ajayi promised to focus attention on three core areas during his two year tenure. 

He outlined these, to include the provision of enabling environment for further growth of the telecom industry; advocacy for industry self-regulation and pursuit of human capacity development.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

NESREA reshut MTN’s base station at EFAB Estate, Abuja

The last may not have been heard of the MTN’s base station at EFAB Estate, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, as it has been reshut by the operatives of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA).

This is coming four days after the apex telecommunications regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regulator, unsealed the same base station last Monday.

ITRealms Online recalls that MTN’s base transceiver station (BTS) located at EFAB Estate, Mbora District in Abuja was shut by NESREA, has shut the BTS for the second time in two weeks.

Corroborating this to ITRealms Online, the Corporate Services Executive at MTN Nigeria, Mr. Wale Goodluck, said Thursday in Lagos that MTN’s base transceiver station initially shut about two weeks ago by the officials of NESREA, citing non-compliance with setback requirements for BTS has been reshut.

He noted that NCC was convinced that the BTS indeed met all requirements set by the regulator for setting up base transceiver stations in Nigeria.

He also said that officials of NESREA however returned to reseal the site on Thursday, again plunging subscribers covered by the base station in Abuja into service difficulties.  

Mr. Goodluck restated MTN’s commitment as a responsible corporate citizen abides by the rules and regulations governing the provision of telecommunications services in Nigeria.

He stressed that they have painstakingly observed the guidelines listed by NCC for setting up base transceiver stations in Nigeria.

He lamented the increasing incidence of arbitrary shut-down of telecom facilities by diverse government departments and agencies could compromise the gains recorded in the sector in the last ten years.

Goodluck recalls that MTN’s services were disrupted in the eastern part of the country last year when the Abia State Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) sealed off MTN sites, a number of which were hub sites, in Abia State.

“Our customers were needlessly plunged into service difficulties by this action before normalcy was restored. Our facilities across the country have been pointlessly shut down by all manner of government agencies in the last few years,” he said.

He said, this has compounded the problem, even as criminal elements also wantonly damage the company’s facilities across the country.

On the latest shut-down, he said, is engaging all relevant authorities, including the industry regulator, to resolve the issue as soon as possible so that the subscribers affected by the action could enjoy relief.

He, therefore apologised to MTN’s customers covered by this base transceiver station, and indeed, all subscribers in the entire Federal Capital Territory, who may have experienced congestion as a result of the loss of capacity on the affected site,” said Goodluck.

He further appealed for customers’ understanding and assured that efforts would be intensified to expediently resolve the issues and restore normal services.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D