NANFeatures/Vol.11/No.165/2017 (Dec. 25)
Meeting broadband penetration target: Any hope for telecom stakeholders?
A News Analysis by Constance Athekame, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
The first national ICT draft in 2012 proposed broadband policy position of the country and emphasised its importance to achieving the overall objective of ICT as a tool for national development.
Broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals and traffic types.
Broadband is used to mean any high-speed Internet access that is faster than traditional dial-up access.
The draft policy notes that although there are some initiatives aimed at deploying broadband in Nigeria, many challenges remain with the deployment of a national fibre optic-based network.
It states that there is an urgent need to accelerate the pace of ongoing efforts and also to introduce new initiatives to address the challenge to actualise the developmental goals of Vision 20:2020.
Experts observe that the Federal Government, therefore, ought to pursue a five-fold increase in broadband penetration rate quickly.
Further to this, in September 2012, the presidency inaugurated the Presidential Committee for a National Broadband Strategy and Roadmap headed by ICT experts, Dr Ernest Ndukwe and Mr Jim Ovia.
They were supported by 15 other members, representing various stakeholder groups in the sector and an additional set of co-opted members.
Mrs Omobola Johnson, former Minister of Technology, in her brief to the committee, told the members to ensure that the plan would be immediately workable and realistic.
The committee later came up with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2013 -2018 to achieve 30 per cent broadband penetration target.
With just a few days to 2018, some experts have expressed concern about how to meet the penetration target.
But the agencies which are saddled with the responsibility of driving the broadband penetration insist that the country will meet the target.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is optimist that Nigeria will meet the target.
According to him, Nigeria has already achieved 22 per cent going by the rating of International Telecommunications Union.
“We are in 22 per cent, so, we have about 8 percentage points to go,” he said.
He observed that two more infrastructure companies had been licensed for the North-Eastern zone and the South Eastern zone of the country.
“We like to cross our fingers and assure Nigerians that we will do whatever is possible to ensure that we attain the 30 per cent broad penetration as contained in the national broadband plan.
“The commission had been mandated to particularly drive the deployment of broadband to attain the target,” he said.
Also recently in Lagos, NCC said that it had called on state governors to assist it in achieving the 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018.
The Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo, said the commission had appealed to state governments and their agencies to assist by ensuring easy approval for Right of Way for the deployment of infrastructure.
According to him, the industry has challenges of deployment of base stations in the states because of the issue of the Internally Generated Revenue.
“There had been reluctance with the various agencies under various levels of government to give approval as quickly as possible for the deployment of infrastructure.
Also, Danbatta has made a presentation at the Governors’ Forum on how these challenges are actually contributing to the poor quality of service and that there is need for us to have pervasive rollout of base stations.
“Pervasive base stations deployment can narrow the areas that don’t have coverage so that the issue of access and broadband penetration target can be realised.
“Unless we do that, we will keep having challenges in being able to meet with the government policy of 30 per cent by 2018,” he said.
Ojobo said by 2018, it was expected that the country would have 30 per cent broadband penetration, but some of the challenges were slowing down the process.
“In 2018, some of these challenges will be tackled, especially as governors are beginning to appreciate the importance of these infrastructure in states,” he said.
Similarly, Nigerian Communication Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT), says it is set to surpass the 30 per cent broadband penetration target at the end of December, 2017, if public and private sector operators in the country key into its ongoing Ka-VSAT deployment.
Its Managing Director, Ms Abimbola Alale, gave the assurance, saying “I can assure you that by the time we start rolling out, we will surpass that 30 per cent target.
“Our target is to go into the rural areas and serve the underserved and unserved people and by the time you serve these rural people, the 30 per cent target we are looking at can be surpassed.
“If we take the 20 per cent of the rural areas and add it to the percentage the terrestrial operators are offering, that will go a long way to surpass that target.
‘‘The government came up with local content initiative because that is the only hope.
“We know that the only way to empower our youth is through ICT, whether terrestrial or satellite network.
“The satellite communication network, NIGCOMSAT R1 is ready to provide services to served and unserved areas within Nigeria.
‘‘If you look at the population of Nigeria, more than 70 per cent people live in the rural areas and should have access to network, which NIGCOMSAT is ready to drive along with other private sector, broadband services and internet connectivity across the country,” she said.
She explained that “Ka-Band is a network of its own, which is a part of the satellite that offers a VSATS network cost effective solutions that reduces total cost of ownership and cheaper bandwidth pricing for subscribers”.
Chairperson, Nigeria Internet Governance Forum Mary Uduma says authorities ought to evolve development that can aid the attainment of the target.
And according to her, when the government beefs up infrastructures such as road and electricity, it will assist the network operators to improve on their infrastructure to achieve the target.
She, however, called on all stakeholders to support the government to enable the country to achieve the target.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)