The Lagos State Infrastructure Management and Regulatory Agency, issued a directive on Wednesday that the 2,000 base stations already existing in the state were enough in line with international safety standards and the preservation of the environment.

The General Manager of LASIMRA Mr. Joe Igbokwe, who announced this in a media conference in Lagos, said that if there is a need to install new base stations in the developing areas of the state, telecom operators wishing to do so, must obtain the necessary approval.

He added that given the situation in Lagos, the time had come for operators to take the issue of collocation and infrastructure sharing seriously so that both their services and the subscribers could have the best in terms of telecommunications services.

He said, "I want to charge our mega telecom providers to start considering the idea of collocation which I am told is the in-thing in the other mega cities of the world. Lagos can therefore not be an exception". This, according to him, will lead to a situation where a tower meets the needs of a number of companies operating within a particular locality.

According to him, replication of installation will be checked and operating costs spread among companies. Hence, he added that a low-tariff desire of consumers would be achieved, a situation he said was another concern of the Agency.

Igbokwe also said the government had approved the lifting of the ban it earlier imposed on telecom operators on tar and earth cut activities, since more than 85 per cent of the cut areas in Lagos have been restored.

He blamed operators for the decision of the state government to ban the cutting of roads, stating that some operators had abandoned the modus operandi they jointly entered into with the government.

He said, "some companies simply walk away after their cables/pipes must have been laid and leave the general public to suffer the consequences of neglect as damaged roads and side walks visit untold hardship on road users, not excepting even pedestrians."

Igbokwe advised operators intending to lay cables to work with the government so that efforts to provide both communication and road infrastructure would be well synchronized.
He said the need for this had necessitated the government to advertise the roads it wants to rehabilitate in national dailies.

Highway Africa News Agency