With the successful privatisation of former state-run telco Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mtel to NATCOM Consortium, and efforts to resuscitate the moribund firm, LUCAS AJANAKU reports that there is need for the Federal Government to also revisit the National Rural Telephony Project (NRTP) which was tied to the infrastructure of the telco.
It is generally believed that with about 150million connected lines to the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and about 107 per cent teledensity, Nigeria has done well, but the report of a study commissioned by the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) showed that over 200 subsidy clusters exist across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria where telecommunication services are yet to reach.
The report, which was released during the last administration at a stakeholder’s forum in Lagos, had consultants that included KPMG.
The study, which was initiated in 2013 by the USPF, was part of the mandate of the USPF, which is to stimulate the deployment and utilisation of ICT services in un-served and underserved communities and groups in the country.
The experience of mobile phone users in the rural areas across the country is nothing to write home about. Even rural communities in metropolitan Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and other major cities across the country are still unconnected. The fact that the industry, because of the problem of poor quality of service (QoS), has become used to multi-SIMING (use of multiple subscriber identity modules (SIM) is also an indication that the about 150million subscribers are far less than that in the real sense. This situation has made the revisit of the moribund NRTP imperative.
Speaking on the issue, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) urged the Federal Government to synergise with telecoms operators in resuscitating the NRTP.
The Federal Government had in 2011, announced the suspension of the NRTP which started in 2001 under former President Olusegun Obasanjo due to its poor execution.
The first phase of the project was to cover 218 of the 774 local government areas of the country and provide over 636,256 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) lines in all the council areas in the country to have access to information communication technology (ICT) as a way of bridging the digital divide.
The project, which was subdivided into three phases, was estimated to cost $200 million. To show seriousnes, the government involved some private sector operators, namely Key Communications Limited, Suburban Broadband Limited, Voicewares Network Limited, Gicell Wireless Limited, and Hezonic Limited.
President of ATCON, Lanre Ajayi said the clamour was necessary since the government had been unable to implement the project, adding that rural communities had yet to feel the impact of the phenomenal growth in the telecoms sector.
According to Ajayi, the synergy was necessary to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas, especially since the community telephony has been comatose for some years.
Ajayi said the development history of telephony in Nigeria showed that telephone service had always been targeted at the urban dwellers to the exclusion of the rural dwellers that form a major thrust of the economy.
He said: “The Federal Government should support telecommunications providers to reach the under-reached and unserved areas through the USPF.
“In the implementation of rural telephony, government should provide operators stable power supply, accessible roads and improved security of telecoms infrastructures.
“Opening up the rural communities through integration into the national telephone networks will enhance exploitation of the economic potential of the communities and improve the standard of living of the rural dwellers.”
It is the belief of the ATCON chief that this would reduce significantly, the level of poverty and improve the national income profile of the citizens.
He said the government should provide an enabling environment for telecoms operators to make the implementation of the abandoned project a reality.
According to him, despite the fact that GSM service had reached almost every nook and cranny of the country, the rural communities have yet to fully enjoy the gains of famous telecoms revolution.
He noted that community telephony would encourage the growth of agricultural, extractive and manufacturing industries in the rural areas.
According to telecom sector analysts, Nigeria’s failure to implement the NRTP greatly affected the success of the complementary development plan of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The initiative was to connect the world with technology by last year. According to ITU, the Connect the World (Connecting the Unconnected) project was designed to mobilise human, financial, and technical resources for the implementation of the connectivity targets of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Regional Initiatives, adopted by member states at the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference.
Acting Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Vincent Olatunji, said the timeline to connect the world last year was not realistic.
He said that due to the gap between countries in terms of technological advancement, each country would need to go ahead with its own connectivity plan, depending on prevailing conditions in the countries.
“The conditions we have in Nigeria are quite different from that of Ghana, South Africa, if you compare that to developed countries like United States, United Kingdom. Some of these projects we need to achieve by last year, the developed countries already have them and are ahead of us. So, the timeline was removed and we were told to just connect schools, hospitals in the rural areas,” Dr. Olatunji said.
Technology handshake
Former Director, Posts & Telecommunications, Ministry of Communication Technology, Engr John Ayodele recalled that the contract was awarded in 2005 and it was a loan arrangement beteewn Nigeria and China Exim Bank
He said: “In the real sense, the project was conceived before the advent of GSM as a way to kick-start telephoning services in Nigeria at a point in time when we have just about 4000,000 lines for almost (at that time, we said we were about 120million) so the fact from the records that I found in files, the first phase was completed with the exemption of one or two areas where they could not secure land to build the master stations and the idea was that, at the time it was conceived, it was NITEL to take it up and use it as a spreading chip for services, so most of the transmissions.
“NITEL was supposed to be the transmission hub, so they were to hook up to NITEL exchanges but subsequently, the liberalisation policy came. GSM came and government’s focus changed, Nigeria NITEL was meant to be privatised or at least sold out to the public, so the question of NITEL becoming a carrier for rural telephony jeopardised the system at that time. So efforts shifted. Government was no longer budgeting for telecoms because it has been liberalised and government did not want to partake in any form of telephone service. But like four years thereafter, there was no budget on it because it was not a priority of government to partake in telephony service and the rate at which GSM was consuming the system everybody felt that rural telephony will be not be a priority. However, investment has been made and we need to conclude it. So government said the best way to do it is to give it out to private operators. So the country was zoned into six and six private operators were appointed. The process was almost concluded when it was said that the Ministry should seek for the buy-in of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) because it was meant to be a concession arrangement. Remember at the time it was conceived, there was no ICRC so ICRC came with all sorts of conditions that were not precedent to the establishment of the rural telephony and for the past three years, the ministry has not been able to get the buy-in of the ICRC. They were always coming up with conditions that were not part of the conditions when the project was created. There was no way to backdate what was done at that time to meet what ICRC is doing today. So, as I am talking to you now, ICRC has not given any concession and the project is now almost like moribund so, as at today six, operators have been selected, they have gone through the whole bidding process. We were just about to give it out when the Attorney General and Minister of Justice advised that the FEC should be brought into the show for final approval and determination. You cannot go to FEC without either ICRC or the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) giving a buy-in because it was a concession arrangement, it is ICRC that should have provided the buy-in but goal post keep changing; we still hope to meet with ICRC one-on-one.
Ayodele said explanation had been made in letters, adding that initially they say they will go round the system and see the thing themselves.
He said: “Actually between you and I, the technology of 2001 when it was conceived was based on CDMA, so even if anybody should buy it today, it is still a long way to getting it to function because they now have a way to migrate it to LTE. If they don’t go that direction, it is not (going to function) and a lot of the project has been vandalised over the years. It’s a fairly complicated issue because if you say you still want to go by what happened in 2005, it’s very difficult because the technology has to change. Anybody who is buying it now has to start a total revolution but we are still making efforts to make sure we get the operators to still go the same way they accepted to go.”
He said the six companies are Nigerian companies that are into one telecom service or the other but not necessarily GSM operation. According to him, at the time the project was conceived, spectrum allocation was at the discretion of government and they were to ride on the spectrum of NITEL.
“So even if we sell it today now, we still have an issue with spectrum. So many concepts that have been overtaken by events so that is why I say it is a bit complicated because at that time, spectrum would have been given to them on what government allocated to NITEL so today, even if they buy, they still have to go for a round of licencing with NCC which was not the concept at the time it was made so, even if they agree to take over today, they are coming back to ask for the free licence and government can no longer give free licence to anybody.
“It’s a bit complicated but not insurmountable, it just means that we have to reengineer the whole scheme from the beginning and that is what we want to discuss with ICRC even start from scratch, then it will be like selling scrap and we want to avoid selling scrap.
“Its a national issue and anyway we can get it done to add value to what we already have.It is the best for the nation and we need to move forward to see how it adds value to the system and we are getting there gradually.”
With the acquisition of NITEL/Mtel, Communications Technology Minister, Adebayo Shittu, who has displayed passion to leave an indellible mark in the industry, must insist that the project be implemented by ntel. Coincidentally, ntel has promised to roll out service on LTE.
