The World is fast becoming a global village and a necessary tool for this process is communication of which communication is a key player.
The development in the telecommunication industry all over the world is very rapid as one innovation replaces another in a matter of weeks. A major breakthrough is the wireless telephone system which comes in either fixed wireless telephone lines or the global system of mobile communication (GSM) communication without doubt is a major driver of any economy. Emerging trends in socio economic growth shows a high premium being placed on information and communication technology (ICT) by homes, organization and nations.
Nigeria is not left out in this race for rapid development as the nations economy has been subject to years of economic reversal via mismanagement and bad leadership. The Nigeria telecommunication sector was grossly underdeveloped before the sector was deregulated under the military regime of General Ibrahim Babagida in 1992 with the establishment of a regulatory body; the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC). So far the NCC has issued various licenses to private communication operators this include (7) seven fixed telephone providers that have activated 90,000 lines; 45 Internet Service Providers with a customer of about 17,000. Several VSAT service providers are in operations and have improved financial intermediation by providing on-line banking services to bank in Nigeria. These licenses allowed Private Telephone Operators ( PTOs) to roll out both fixed wireless telephone lines and analogue mobile phones. The return of democracy in 1992 paved the way for the granting of GSM license to (3) three service providers: MTN NIGERIA, CELTEL WIRELESS NIGERIA AND NITEL PLC now TRANSCORP in 2001.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:
The journey to success in Nigeria’s telecommunication industry has been long and tortuous facilities in Nigeria were first established in 1886 by the colonial administration. At independence in 1960, with a population of roughly 40 million people. The country only has about 18,724 phone lines for use. This translated to a tele density of about 0.5 telephone network consisted of 121 exchange of which 116 were of the manual (magneto) type and only 5 were automatic.
Between 1960 and 1985, the telecommunication sector consisted of the department of Post & Telecommunication ( P&T) in charge of internal network and a limited liability company, the Nigeria External Telecommunication NET Limited is responsible for the external telecommunications (Services) NET provides the gateway to the outside world. The installed switching capacity at the end of 1985 was about 20,000 lines as against the planned target of about 460,000. All the exchanges were analogue, telephone penetration remained poor equaling 1 telephone line to 440 inhabitants well below the target of 1 telephone to 100 inhabitants recommended by ITU for developing countries. The quality of services was largely unsatisfactory.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The most obvious problems of telecommunication service like GLO (NIG) LTD is how to provide effective services to the nation has been yearning for an improved telecommunication services for a long period of time. In response to that, the Federal Government provided for the creation of a company that will function purely on commercial basis.
