By Adekunle Adekoya

What I have always found interesting is whether life can be lived here the way it is lived normally in other countries, especially the ones we are fond of benchmarking our situation with. In the telecommunications arena, land lines are more like it in other climes, than mobile.

This is because land lines, which are cheaper, are everywhere — at home, work, at the bus station, at the metro, at the rail station — just everywhere. But our situation, and the way our telecoms sector has developed since independence until the last decade ensured that being connected here is by the mobile, even if it is the more expensive option.

Which leads me to wonder: Will we ever have land lines, in ubiquity, as South Africa, or England does? Another thing to ponder in trying to answer this question is the Nigerian attitude, which I don’t think can be easily understood. It is this attitude that has ensured the resilience of our economy in the face of all kinds of vicissitudes. If land lines are eventually made available here by the telcos, will Nigerians buy?

Industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission’s sector data as of December 2012 indicated that mobile GSM accounts for a whopping 97 per cent of market share, compared with a paltry 2.60 per cent held by the mobile CDMA, while fixed wired and wireless lines account for an insignificant 0.37 per cent of market share.

Again, industry data from NCC showed that active lines in the country now stands at more that 113 million, of which more than 109 million are mobile GSM lines, a little under three million being CDMA lines, while less than half a million are fixed wired and wireless lines.

Given the fact that broadband is the declared next level of the telecom revolution in Nigeria, we need to grow the land lines section of the business, which calls for rapid change in the Nigerian attitude.

To have land lines, we must lay cables. Though telcos are laying cables, this is not being done at the right pace that can ensure broadband penetration within the shortest possible time, and we all know why, even though many of us do not like to talk about the issues, and if you like, persons and institutions generating these problems.

It cannot be over-emphasised that individuals and governments must stop seeing the telecoms sector as a fallow cow to be milked at any time of the day. Area boys must stop hindering the laying of cables, while state and local governments must charge reasonably for right of way. When the cables are laid, construction firms doing roads and other civil works must bear in mind that these are infrstructure lines that cannot just be cut anyhow; it will be in all our interests if recourse is made to the telcos before cables are cut.

In all, good will be the day when land lines are available everywhere, because that is when we all truly will be able to enjoy the dividends of ICT penetration which our telecoms revolution has brought. But we must all play our part.