The telecom operators in Nigeria have bemoaned frequent fibre optic cable cuts, leading to a loss of at least $23m (35.4bn) in 2023.
This has also caused internet outages, impacting telecom service quality in the country, according to the operators.
In February, media reports said millions of MTN Nigeria customers could not make calls or connect to the internet for about four hours because of multiple fibre cuts.
Airtel Nigeria, according to media reports, recently called for urgent actions to protect telecom infrastructure as vandalism continues to surge leading to a record of an average of 43 fibre cuts daily on the Airtel network alone.
The company’s Director of Corporate Communications and CSR, Femi Adeniran, was quoted as saying the telco had suffered a total of 7,742 fibre cuts in the last six months.
According to him, fibre cuts—primarily caused by construction activities, vandalism, and a lack of coordination between stakeholders—have become an epidemic in the Nigerian telecom industry.
