For 9Mobile Numbers To Rise, It’s Management Must Audit Its Diesel Use, Go Solar And Unlock GSM Interface With Cubesat
The Oasis Reporters
November 18, 2024
When the latest GSM porting figures were released by the NCC, it was clear that the telecommunications firms that lost the highest numbers to other networks was 9mobile.
Most significantly, when you call a 9mobile line and find it switched off, blame not the phone user. It just may be that the base station transmitting network signals to that line has tripped off because it has run out of diesel.
Not that that the beleaguered network did not supply adequate diesel, but there’s possibly a diesel mafia that siphons the fuel after the supply. Much of the missing fuel may be floating on the dark market.
But besides that, the network was already struggling ever since the original owners, Etisalat of the UAE dumped the Nigerian arm and banned it from the further use of it’s name because of massive internal corruption that crippled the financial capacity of the well loved network.
Hitherto, the beloved network was winning acclaim especially in its data reliability and ease of connectivity, before the massive internal corruption came to the surface.
It was given just a few days to change name and swim on its own. Or sink. The network then became 9mobile and chose to gasp for breath, hoping that a lifeline would come sooner or later.
Yet the network continued to lose numbers as many of it’s shrinking numbers continued to port to other older networks like Airtel, MTN and Glo mobile.
The question therefore was how the network would sustain itself with very few customers.
What were the reasons for customers porting away from the network?
Dissatisfaction due to regular network failures. And networks falter when the towers fail to work or they are offline, more often than online which pushes customers into unmitigated frustration.
Grapevine news quietly reveal that most network towers fail due to the activities of the diesel mafia, suspected to be amongst those who have business opportunity and access to supply diesel that powers the base stations scattered all over Nigeria in an infrastructure deficit nation.
Discrete investigations show that the right amount of diesel would be supplied to the base stations. But some of the same suppliers may be harbouring within their ranks, internal saboteurs who siphon much of the diesel away at night to sell in the dark market. Therefore, the towers and the base stations would have to shut down operations for hours or days, leaving customers frustrated. The frustrated customers now port to other available networks.
Therefore for a network to work much longer and satisfy it’s customers, the diesel Mafia has to be stopped.
But how ?
In the first instance, use secret cameras from either the towers in the premises or cube satellites above to record fuel movements in and out of the base stations. Thieves don’t like exposure, shame and sanctions. Catch a few and prosecute them. That would be a temporary relief.
Secondly, all GSM companies should immediately transit to solar energy to power their base stations.
The new Tesla’s Powerwall solar energy offer is proving to be a game changer. For now, they produce 1000 units of their emergency powerwall units per day. It will keep increasing. Buy some for a start and take the base stations with installed Solar Powerwalls off diesel generators.
There would be joy unlimited since Nigeria’s abundant sunshine would keep the stations working. Tesla Storage batteries are also more cost effective. A new industry would have kick started . Darkness would begin to diminish from the dark continent, kept so by ineptitude, sheer greed and desperate wickedness that has kept Nigeria in pitch darkness by self entitled government workers in the electricity subsector of the economy. The set time to break their stranglehold is now.
Lead the way, 9mobile. By solving your problems to remain in business and grow can help free Nigeria from it’s infrastructure deficit in electricity.
Moving from GSM and going into a link to Cubesat-GSM interface should be next. Break new grounds and prosper. Your customers would come back once they see the smart innovations you put in place.
Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
