Exploring The Challenges and Opportunities in Operationalising ICT-Based Asset Management Maintenance Practices Within Emerging Telecom Industry: The Case of Nigeria Telecom

Telecommunication network operators in emerging markets are operating in an increasingly demanding environment due to deficiencies in basic infrastructure, increased internet penetration, regulatory policies and growth in subscribers’ connections and usage. In several instances, these demands and subscriber growth have translated into the deployment of physical assets, which leads to enormous tension in the telecom base transceiver stations (BTS) that house the assets. Under these conditions, network operators need to operate and manage their infrastructure or assets efficiently to add to the overall performance of their operations and customer satisfaction. However, several studies have not provided a clear perspective, as there is no developed maintenance strategy concerning asset management practices across the emerging telecoms environment. Therefore, the research aims to explore current asset management and maintenance practices across the Nigeria telecoms environment and then suggest measures and approaches to addressing the research context. A survey case study strategy was adopted using a mixed-method approach to define the most efficient management and maintenance intervention required to maximise the asset performance and cost for sustainable network availability. The study findings intend to show that asset management and maintenance practices in Nigeria's telecoms environment face critical management and maintenance issues. Because physical assets must be managed and maintained strategically, weak monitoring and non-application of an ICT-powered predictive-based asset management model for asset visibility are critical challenges in the researched domain. These results could explain how a predictive and human-centric approach's ICT capabilities address and enhance asset problems and performance.