Govt responsible for CDMA woes, says Visafone

CODE Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator in Nigeria, Visafone Communications, has blamed the Federal

CODE Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator in Nigeria, Visafone Communications, has blamed the Federal Government for the poor performance of CDMA operators in the mobile telecommunications sector of the country.

According to Visafone, the CDMA operators in Nigeria, compared to their counterparts in other countries are not thriving well due to lack of government support and harsh business environment.

In an interaction with journalists in Lagos at the weekend in Lagos, Deputy General Manager, Marketing and Strategy, Visafone Nigeria, Mr. Cliford Onyeike noted that the harsh licensing policy of the government made it impossible for the earliest CDMA operators to have a good spread in the country.

Onyeike, who explained that CDMA was a digital cellular technology that used spread-spectrum techniques, said that proponents of the technology said that it consistently provided better capacity for voice and data communications than other commercial mobile technologies, allowing more subscribers to connect at any given time, and was the common platform on which 3G technologies are built.

He said that when CDMA licences were given to the operators; they were only regional-based. As such, the operators could not extend their reach and coverage to areas beyond their licences.

“Across the world, CDMAs have been the enabler of economic revolution in any of the emerging markets. When an economy takes up, the services sector drives up growth of that economy. This is where the need for Internet access comes in and there is no better technology as we speak to access information that the CDMA technology.

“It is the CDMAs, which took the first step to empower the man on the street and not Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), but When CDMA licences were given by the Nigerian Communications Commission, they were regional licences. An operator given a licence to cover Enugu only covered Enugu specifically.

“It was in 2007 when universal licences were given that CDMAs were able to broaden their coverage. At that time, GSM had gained ground. We lost about eight years of advancement; GSM prevailed and ruled the luxury market.”

Onyeike urged the NCC to review the interconnect rates, which, according to him, had been a major dampener in the race to effectively compete in the telecom market.

“In other countries, there is a special concession for CDMAs. We’ve lost much ground to the GSM. For the CDMA success story to be shared worldwide, NCC has to play a major role. Because the interconnect charge is a major dampener for us. Let us not forget the cost of maintaining towers and electricity too,” he said.

In the past 18 months, most CDMA operators in the country have been struggling for survival, urging government to come to their rescue.

The CDMA challenges in the country, led to the divestment of Telkoms South Africa from Multilinks, where it had 100 per cent stake on the basis, that Multilinks was consistently reporting losses during the period of its ownership of the telecommunications firm.

However, in a chat with The Guardian recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Starcomms Plc, Logan Pather said that the present problem confronting the CDMA operators in the country arose from not taking over the market at the entrance of the Nigerian market.