The Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector started a little late in the year, but it seems to be picking up now, reports LUCAS AJANAKU.
Towards the end of last year, the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson; Project Manager, Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA), Helen Anatogu and others addressed stakeholders on the ministry’s pet project: software incubation centres. Going by Anatogu’s explanation, two centres were to come into being before the end of the year or at worst, first quarter of this year. But that did not happen. The Lagos pilot scheme was inaugurated less than three months ago in Yaba. The other, scheduled for Tinapa Knowledge City in Calabar, the Cross River State capital is yet to fly.
Anatogu blamed bureaucracy for the delays. She said the “delay is not denial” as the centre in Yaba was like a blessing in disguise. Mrs Omobola said by 2015, six software incubation centres would have been set up while about 25 new businesses would have been established through the initiative.
Software venture capital fund manager
A Venture Capital fund manager was selected to manage the N500 million seed fund made available by the Federal Government through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Details of the manager were not made public but it is said to be an internationally recognised venture capital fund manager. “A venture fund capital manager has been selected; unfortunately, we cannot let you know the identity of the manager now,” Helen said.
The venture capital fund manager is expectected to raise about $75 million to the pool. The fund is expected to be pulled back in 10 years time.
Dominant operators
MTN and Globacom emerged “dominant operators” in the telecoms industry, the report of consultants commissioned by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed.
In its recent industry review, the regulator noted that phone calls between MTN customers cost three times lower than calls to other networks. “This is indicative of the likely establishment of a calling club for MTN subscribers,” NCC said.
Nigeria, Africa’s fastest growing telecoms market with a population of 167 million people has a subscriber base that is slightly above 119.3 million by the first quarter of this year, NCC data showed. MTN Nigeria was the market leader with about 50 million lines. Globacom has about 24 million subscribers while Airtel had 23 million customers. Etisalat had 15 million.
MTN and Globacom were found to “jointly control about 62 per cent of the public terrestrial transmission infrastructure,” raising concerns that they may “squeeze the margins of their competitors who are also their customers.”
NCC directed MTN to adhere to ‘accounting separation; collapse of on-net and off-net retail tariffs; and submit required details on specific aspects of its operations from time to time as the need arises. NCC promised to make a determination of pricing principle to address the rate charges for on-net and off-net calls for all other operators
On the dominant operators in the wholesale leased lines and transmission jointly dominated by MTN and Globacom, NCC said it will impose price cap/price floor for wholesale services and price floor for retail services, which shall be subject to periodic review. It will also “immediately enforce and implement accounting separation on the joint dominant operator.”
“The determination shall take effect from May 1, 2013 and remain valid and binding on licensees for the services specified in relevant market segment of this sector until further reviewed by the commission,” NCC insisted.
It is not clear if any of the directives of the regualtor has been implemented, about two months after.
National Broadband Plan
Perhaps, the greatest milestone of the period under review was the public presentation of the National Broadband Plan 2013-2018. The presentation was made by former Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC and co-chairman of the Presidential Committee on Broadband, Ernest Ndukwe,. He explained that the vision was to have “a society of connected communities with high speed Internet and broadband access that facilitates faster socio-economic advancement of the nation and its people.” The public presentation of the roadmap has received public commendation from stakeholders.
Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Secretary-General, Prof Tim Unwin, said he was delighted that the country had taken the brave initiative of launching a national broadband policy. He stressed that it was a great step in the right direction. “I see the broadband policy here as a massive commitment to raise broadband connection to the entire country. That is an ambitious programme. We will continue to support the NCC and the government of Nigeria,” he said in Lagos.
MNPlaunch
The NCC kicked off the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme in Lagos, saying the development will give subscribers complete freedom to choose which service provider to use. EVC of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, said it was in furtherance of the commission’s vision of providing not only access to telecoms services to Nigerians at affordable cost but also to continue to provide the required stimulus and appropriate environment for the introduction of innovative services that will impact on quality of service delivery.
According to Juwah, MNP has been identified as one service that could further deepen the competition in the telecoms market, adding that with the growing reliance and dependence on mobile communications for everyday socio-economic interactions, it was appropriate to destroy all fetters to choice.
“The vision of the commission is not only to provide access to telecommunication services to Nigerians at affordable cost but to also continue to provide the required stimulus and appropriate environment for the introduction of innovative services that will impact on quality telecoms service delivery,” he said.
End to SIM card registration
The nationwide subscriber identifcation module (SIM) card registration officially ended on June 30 after running for about 27 months.
The exercise began on March 28, 2011 and had been enmeshed in one problem or the other.
While the operators and subscribers have asked for a three-month extension, the regulator insisted that it has ended the exercise. Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo, told The Nation that there would be no extension, in spite of the appeals by Association of Licensed Telecoms Opaerators of Nigeria (ALTON) and the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS).
One sore point about SIM registration is that a lot of subscribers will be affected by NCC’s mass disconnection order of unregistered SIM because so many subscribers registered their SIM cards long time ago only to receive text messages that their SIMs were yet to be registered.
Pegging of off-net SMS rate at N4
In a move commended by stakeholders, except operators, the regulator pegged all domestic off-net short message services (SMS) at N4. While the operators lamented that it was an overkill because traffic and revenue originating from SMS had shrunk tremendously due to the emergence of instant messaging platforms, such as Blackberry and WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook chat, Yahoo messenger, 2go, meebo, ebuddy, Nimbuzz and CoollM, subscribers say it has brought an end to the era of fleecing them, arguing that in some countries, SMS are offered to subscribers free.
Crash of voice calls
The NCC also announced a reduction in interconnection rates for voice calls in the country. Under the new dispensation, the rate was reduced from N8.20 to N6.40, N5.20 and N3.90.
The regulator explained that the decision to reduce the interconnection rate was taken after wide consultations with the all the stakeholders in the telecoms sector.
“After comprehensive consultations with various stakeholders, the NCC released a new set of interconnection rates determination for voice services for the country’s telecommunications industry, commencing April 1, 2013. The new determination rate, which significantly reviewed prices downwards are informed by the depth of competition in the industry while taking into consideration the position of new entrants and small operators,” Ojobo explained.
He said the termination rates for voice services provided by new entrants (defined as newly licensed operator entering an existing or new market within zero to three years) and small operators (defined as an existing operator with a market share of 0 – 7.5 per cent in terms of subscriber base in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network shall be: N6.40 from April 1, this year; N5.20 from April 1, 2014; and N3. 90 from April 1, 2015.
According to the NCC, the termination rates for voice services provided by other operators in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network shall be: N4.90 from April 1, this year; N4.40 from April 1, 2014; and N3.90 from April 1, 2015.
Unbanning of promos, lotteries
In a rather bizarre move, the NCC unbanned promos and lotteries on the network. Sector analysts said the regulator capitulated to the maneuvering of the operators. They argued that the reasons for prohibiting lotteries and promos had to do with service quality and still had not been addressed.
Quality of telecoms services
During the period under review, like the proverbial leopard that never changes its spot, the quality of telecoms services continued to drop. Call drops, unsuccssful call rates, cross-talking, unauthorised call diversion and other problems continued to be the daily experience of subscribers across all the networks in the country. In a strange coincidence, service quality dipped to its lowest shortly after the launch of the MNP.
In the area of data services, the subscribers undergo untold hardship trying to use their dongles. If the problem is not downtime from the service providers, it is the speed and bandwidth promised that are not being made available to them. Some internet service providers (ISPs) too continue to have a field day as they unleash less than dignifying
National Single Window Portal
The Ministry of Communications Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Information launched the National Single Window Portal to create one point of entry for Nigerians to access government information and services online.
A government Call Center with vanity number ‘’0700 CALL GOV’’ has since been launched. The Call centre will facilitate enquiries, complaints/problem resolution where possible. It will help build a knowledge management database and help support servicom desks.
NCS dreams IT Park
The Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) unfolded plans to build an IT Park in Lagos. Its President, Sir Demola Aladekomo, said the body intends to replicate what happened in Balgore, India and Sillicon Valley in the US. “What it does is that it allows us to pull resources together to manage all the tings that we need centrally. Just like the Sillicon Valley that we were discussing, once you know that there is a place you can go to get all these service, the whole world will just go there. So, there is synergy it is going to create, not just within the industry but also within the society because they know that they can get service, they will go there. Even the infrastucture providers can then concentrate on us,” he said.
