Telecommunications tower operators spend some N175 million every day on diesel which is used to power generators at their towers housing base transceiver stations (BTS) that make it possible for Nigerians to use GSM service to make and receive calls.
Telecom towers house base stations that Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and 4G internet service providers use to deliver services to their customers.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that a co-located tower which houses 3 to 5 base stations use 20KVA generator to supply power while a tower that houses a single base station uses 15KVA generator. More so, each generator consumes 50 litres of diesel per day especially in recent years when public power system is highly erratic.
Nigeria Communications Week gathered that presently, towers run on generator in an average of 20 hours a day. This means that 25,000 of towers in the country that use generators consume some 1.25million litres of diesel a day.
It was learnt that this quantity of diesel consume by generators at different towers cost tower operators about N175million at diesel pump price of N140 per litre.
Why cant they make a one time investment into the power sector to ensure constant electricity. It will pay them in the long run?