COMMON DIFFICULTIES ON IMPLEMENTATION OF TELECOM EXTERNAL LINE PLANT IN NIGERIA

HELLO HIVE
I hope we are all having a great day. I wish everyone one best of luck in all our endeavors.

WHAT IS TELECOM EXTERNAL LINE PLANT?

For a better understanding to a layman, External line plant is the kind of project whereby, optic fibre cable is laid beside the road in other to link the telecommunication cell sites together. Optic Fiber cable is a very reliable type of cable, which is made of strands of glass, its carries data in a very fast speed, and can transport data through a very long distance.

A cell site
image source
Optical fiber attached to patch pannel
image source

WHAT ARE THE DIFFICULTIES ON THE PROJECT IN NIGERIA

I am not having any experience of this type of project outside my home country, that is why I am limiting the write up to the country.

1. Community Issues
This is the most common difficulty in the implementation of optic Fiber external line plant.
Sometimes it might be the easiest to be resolved sometimes it might be the deadliest to be resolved.
Sometimes it's might be local government issues, whereby the local government of a region will stand against any activity to be carryout, neither trenching, nor Thrust boring.
Sometimes it might be the traditional rulers that will stand against the project in their community.
Sometimes it might be the Landlord association.
Sometimes it might be the an individual that stand against the activities to pass through the front or on his property.
Sometimes it might be the area boys(Hooligans), in this case, they seems to be the most dangerous difficulty in the category, but they are the easiest to resolve any issues with. All they want is some money, and they don't demand to much, but can keep coming on every stage of the project. They will show up at the beginning of civil work, before fiber pulling, during the trench casting and probably at the beginning of termination.

N.B, all this isssues are finance issues, even if the state government gives the implementation company a ROW, it is invalid to these set of people I mentioned above.

Note: this can delay the project more than the stipulated time to execute the project.

abandoned project deu to community issues

2. Thrust Boring
Thrust Boring is done in a place where the surface of the earth is not allowed to be teared, rather we create a passage beneath the earth surface without affecting the surface.
The most common method of Thrust boring in Nigeria is manual method. Mechanical method is only used in a very long span of Thrust boring where the finding cannot be achieved at the middle of the Thrust Bore Untill it gets to the end.
During some Thrust boring, you might come across a big stone or rock beneath the ground. And this might cause changing of route, which might result to increase in length of the work. If there is not other choice than to pass through that route, it will surely increase and delay the time of the project.

A Thrust boring point that is hitting rock

3. Land Terrains
This is one of the difficulties contractors face on site, if the soil type is a hard one or rocky soil, it will be very hard to get to the normal depth.
In a situation like this, the contractor will not have choice than to introduce Trench casting after laying of Ducts.

a Trench cast beside the concrete drainage

4. Financial Problem: This type of difficulty arise as a result of some other difficulties mentioned above, or it might be the result of poor project planning before the execution of the project.
Some contractors take some risk that are beyond their capabilities, they will start a project without having enough capital to get the project to the end with the fare of not losing the opportunity,thinking they will be able to generate some funds from or loan from other things. But unfortunately, it doesn't always end up to what they think most time.
If any of all mentioned above occurs to a contractor, it's will surely delay the completion of the project, and as a result of that, it can result to financial loss. This can get many contractors to bankruptcy, most especially if the project is to be paid for after the completion of the project. And some times, it result to internal conflicts between the contractor and his labours

I will have to stop here for now, if there is anything to add to it in the future, I will surely do.

This content is mine and all the pictures are mine except those that I have already inserted their source.
I stand to be corrected if there is any mistake here, and I am ready to learn more if there is at least a fiber person on this platform. I'm ready to gain more knowledge here in cace of any optic Fiber professionals in the platform.

I hope this is interesting to you. Please let me know if you like my post.
Thank you.