Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has advocated that telecoms service providers and consumers carefully examine the unintended side-effects of their critical social infrastructure on the environment.
NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM), Mr Adeleke Adewolu, stated this in his opening remarks at the commemoration of this year’s World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) with the theme: “Empowering Consumers through Clean Energy Transition”, in Abuja on Wednesday.
“This year, we are pivoting our celebrations around a theme which allows us to design more environmentally sustainable service models so that we can truly serve our consumer better,” he said.
Adewolu stressed that the 2023 WCRD theme permitted consumers and other stakeholders in the digital ecosystem to critically examine the unintended side-effects of their critical social infrastructure on the environment.
He said that the telecoms industry, with over 226 million voice customers and over 156million Internet customers as of 31 January, 2023, give consumers the ability to leverage communications infrastructure for social interaction, health service, access to education and banking.
He further observed that as consumer volumes and service diversity continue to grow, network operators have to roll-out more infrastructure for coverage in new, mostly rural areas, and for network expansion in already saturated urban markets.
He added that emerging technologies like 5th Generation (5G) mobile services will also require more infrastructure.