‘Sabotage, Insecurity behind Nigeria’s ‘Dead Call’ Crisis’

Wale Igbintade 

The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON),  Gbenga Adebayo, has exposed the deep-rooted challenges crippling phone signals across Nigeria, blaming widespread infrastructure sabotage and insecurity rather than service providers.

 Speaking in response to concerns raised by veteran broadcaster Jimi Disu over the growing “dead call” phenomenon, Adebayo described the situation as an “industrial nightmare” driven by persistent attacks on telecom infrastructure.

 He identified frequent fibre optic cuts during road construction and the rampant theft of diesel from base stations as major contributors to network disruptions nationwide.

According to him, the rising cost of maintaining telecom infrastructure has forced operators to adopt cost-sharing models such as colocation, where multiple service providers share towers and masts to reduce operational expenses.

He stressed that the industry operates as a unified ecosystem, noting that disruptions affecting one operator often have ripple effects across the entire network.

“At the end of the day, we have one national network; so the problems, the issues are common to all of us and the solution should be collective,” Adebayo said.

 He further highlighted the human and operational risks faced by telecom engineers, revealing that technicians are often unable to respond to outages after 6:00p.m in certain areas due to security threats, including attacks by armed vandals. 

“We have territories that we cannot access because of issues of security,” he added.

 Citing an example from a Lekki community, Adebayo noted that residents endured months without public electricity while still expecting uninterrupted telecom services, despite operators incurring additional costs, including payments to local groups, just to transport diesel to power base stations.

 The ALTON chairman also pointed to systemic challenges affecting both citizens and operators, emphasising that telecom services are intertwined nationwide. 

A single fibre cut or site outage, he explained, can cascade into widespread service failures, countering the perception that poor service delivery is deliberate.

He called for a shift in national attitudes towards protecting critical infrastructure, warning that continued vandalism and insecurity would undermine investments in the sector. 

Until government and communities ensure the safety of telecom assets, Adebayo cautioned that the persistent problem of dropped calls is unlikely to abate.