Information Minister Michael Makuei | File photo.

The national Minister of Information, Communication Technology, and Postal Service has advised telecommunication operators to share their cell stations and cell towers.

Michael Makuei said it has become a norm for every company to erect its own network tower in the country.

“Operators must accept the sharing of facilities. We have to render services to our people, and we must move out of Juba,” he stated.

The cellular-enabled mobile device sites are infrastructure where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed—typically on a radio mast, tower, or other raised structure—to create a cell (or adjacent cells) in a cellular network

Experts agree that network sharing increases the speed of opening new fields and enables the subscribers to provide network coverage to wide areas in a faster way with lower Capital Expenditure potential.

It also allows operators to start making money as of the first day by removing the field installing process and use less material and less power for tower building.

But Makuei stated that Juba is now crowded with cell towers because of a lack of collaboration among telecom companies.

He said this is against the policy of the National Communication Authority.

“The operators are resisting the sharing of facilities,” Makuei complained, adding that “Juba has become a town of towers where you find one tower near the tank, at the center, and another tower at the gate.”

“This is not acceptable.”

Technicians have confirmed that network sharing among operators can reduce the number of towers and provide the same service to subscribers, which means less usage of energy and less carbon emission.

Juba currently hosts towers for telecommunication companies such as Zain, MTN, Digitel, and several transmission towers for various radio stations and television.