Category: Infotech

Amid pomp and ceremony, the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration unveiled the National Broadband Plan (NBP), which set  milestones for the country to achieve in the immediate, short and long terms. The plan may be mere wishful thinking considering the investment in infrastructure, reports Lucas Ajanaku.

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Dambatta, is not a politician. Coming from the ivory tower, he is not likely to play to the gallery. So he knew what he was saying  when he said the government may not attain the 30 per cent broadband target set for 2018 in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2013-2018.

For one, there is inadequate infrastructure on ground to support the plan. For another, there is no funding, especially from the private sector to push the plan. The  Federal Government’s plan to licence seven infrastructure firms (InfraCos) has bee prolonged. Under the plan, one InfraCo each would be licensed for the six geopolitical zones of the country; Lagos, because of its size and potential will have one.

However, with only two InfraCos so far licensed for deployment in Lagos and Northcentral,  the EVC said the NCC is committed to driving the process  to completion, with about 24 months to go. According to him, broadband penetration in the country stands at seven per cent, a level below the average set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Telecoms revolution has played very significant role in this area.

Telecos such as MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat have provided bulk of the mobile, broadband.

Dambatta said:  “We have said this (the realisation of the milestones of the NBP) must be driven by massive investment in infrastructure, otherwise, this will not be attainable.

“We are at the stage of developing the regulatory framework and we are doing that and once this exercise is completed we are envisaging that the licensing of the remaining zones with the provision of broadband infrastructure will take place within the next three or four months.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Teledon Group, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem, said the advantages of rapid, ubiquitous and affordable broadband deployment cannot be over-emphasised as broadband platforms promote the convergence of voice, data and audio visual services onto a single network. Broadband infrastructure is central to achieving the goal of financial/digital inclusion being championed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), enabling universal, sustainable, ubiquitous and affordable access to Information Communication Technology (ICT) by all and providing sustainable connectivity and access to remote and marginalised areas at national, state and local government levels.

In 2007 South Africa approved the building of an information society,  based on the outcome of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society which Nigeria also participated in the summit. The summit resolved that lCT infrastructure is the foundation for the development of an information society. (World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Action Line C2, Information and Communications Infrastructure is an essential foundation for the Information Society.) The development of a Broadband Policy is in line with global trends and is critical to ensure realisation of the goal of an all inclusive information society that can enjoy the economic benefits associated with broadband in both urban and rural areas.

Former Director, Regulatory Affairs and Special Projects, Airtel Nigeria, Osondu Nwokoro, who spoke on Policy and Regulatory Imperatives for Broadband Ubiquity at a public forum, said the launch of the NPB by the Federal Government is consistent with developments in other jurisdictions, adding that it is a step in the right direction and showed government’s commitment to pursue a broadband agenda for the country.

Nwokoro, who now works for the scrap left by NITEL/Mtel, which has metamorphosed into ntel and is struggling to pull itself from the bootstrap, defined broadband as the easiest, fastest, and high speed internet access for data transmission and download. Compared to traditional telephone and modem, broadband supports real time internet radio, music, video, gaming, interactive services and others.

The NBP defines broadband as an internet experience where the user can access the most demanding content in real time at a minimum speed of 1.5megabytes per second (Mbps).

Broadband Commission for Digital Development said: “Access to broadband infrastructure and services must, therefore, be a top policy priority for countries around the globe, developed and developing alike, and least developed countries. Governments and business must work together to develop innovative policy frameworks, business models and financing arrangements needed to facilitate growth in access to broadband worldwide.”

Wireless broadband was expected to contribute an additional N190billion to gross domestic product (GDP) last year while wireless broadband was expected to have a direct revenue impact (spend on usage and devices) of N598billon or 0.7 per cent of GDP at the end of last year, he said, adding that its ecosystem value will be N124billion comprising consumer retail (m-commerce; m-entertainment), financial services (m-banking), social services (m-learning, m-health, and m-governance) and corporate verticals (m-farming, m-enterprises, m-utilities).

Head, Core Network Services, Cyberspace Network Limited, Osuere Peter said broadband is the totality that forms the entity for faster information delivery across a network. This network could either be digital subscriber line (DSL), fiber-optic, cable modem, satellite, wireless and broadband over power lines (BPL).

He said customers could now carry on banking transaction activities via their fixed and mobile devices while e-commerce sites such as Konga, Jumia, Olx have also emerged.

It has also led to the provision of public services such as driver-license application, international passport, national ID card registration and the general e-government solutions, adding that the implementation of regulatory framework and policies to promote electronic transaction such as the cashless policy of the CBN.

According to the ambitious targets of the NBP, fixed broadband targets for cities (currently standing at 1.5per cent) was expected to go up to 10 per cent last year in the short term, 16 per cent medium term of 2018 and long term target of 25 per cent by 2020. Penetration level, which stands at 0.5 per cent, will move up gradually to 3.3 per cent, 5.3 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

 

Challenges

 

Paucity of spectrum is a major challenge. The NBP acknowledges the place of spectrum in mobile broadband and proposed to publish plan for freeing up spectrum for LTE (long term evolution) rollout last year, conduct licensing of 2.5/2.6 GHz spectrum in 2014 and facilitate accelerated wireless infrastructure expansion and upgrade with operators. President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi is not impressed with the way the National Frequency Management Board (NFMB) is going about its business.

“We are disturbed that NCC has not been able to assign spectrum to operators for a long while. Past attempts to assign the 2.6Ghz have failed,” he lamented. It is also feared that the 2.6GHz spectrum availability could be delayed beyond this year while the 700/800 MHz digital dividend awarded to MTN has become a subject of controversy.

Limitation of one InfraCo to one geopolitical zone, he said, has the tendency to breed monopoly such as NITEL. “We are concerned that licensing of InfraCos are being unduely delayed; we are particularly concerned that licences are being limited to one operator per defined geographic zone; we believe having just one operator in a zone creates monopoly and it may inadvertently bring us back to the dreadful days of NITEL. We canvass for multiplicity of licences per zone,” he said, adding that it will create competition and diversity on various routes where cables are to be laid thereby increasing network reliability.

Nwokoro lamented that fixed infrastructure is not available in Nigeria and the cost and burden of putting same in place is daunting, adding that wireless is the only viable option for broadband penetration.

Another issue is that of Right of Way (RoW), permits and other planning approval processes and associated charges between different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) at Federal, state and local levels remain a strong disincentive for infrastructure development.

Though NBP proposes to secure RoW waivers with states and also pursue expedited RoWs, achieving this goal between the three tiers of government remains a daunting challenge.

Other challenges are device ownership and access points, which are vital to adoption and utilisation.

“NBP proposes to challenge OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to produce sub $30 access devices to reduce cost of ownership and thus facilitate uptake by the broader subscriber base.

“NBP also proposes to deploy local access points (in NIPOST premises and local government headquarters) to facilitate access within 2km for people, who cannot afford to own access devices,” he said.  But in spite of all the promises of the market size, major OEMs are unwilling to site assembly plants in Nigeria for device manufacturing, on account of unstable electricity supply, intellectual property rights issues and obstacles in the business environment. Only Rlg has braved the odds to do so.

 

Way forward

 

Mandate should be given to the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) to articulate a spectrum roadmap to address timely available, cost-effective pricing and licensing spectrum band to support mobile broadband penetration.

Another is resuscitation of the NFMB and expansion of its membership to incorporate private sector.

Consideration should be given to the 900 MHz and 2.5/2.6 GHz spectrum re-farming to support mobile broadband on LTE while spectrum policy and regulation to support flexibility to supporting regional integration.

Transition to a converged regulatory and spectrum environment by the merger of NCC and Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) consistent with international best practice must be looked into. This is where the National Assembly comes in. The sector analysts say instead of gallivanting all over the place, summoning individuals and corporate organisations under the guise of oversight functions, they should sit and enact laws that will ensure that the goals of NBP are achieved to promote access to e-literacy in the educational system; promote access to quality health services; increase efficiency in government processes; make Nigeria a competitive destination for investment; bridge the yawning digital divide; and promote inclusiveness of rural and marginalised communities.

It is good that data centers are springing up across the country. Efforts must be made to have solutions that can bring together independent broadband technology platforms to function as a single unit.

 

Lack of funds to invest in the provision of broadband infrastructure is a major problem inhibiting its penetration in Nigeria, Executive Director, Numeric Technologies Limited, Alexander Anago, has said.

He said there are a lot people pursuing individual interest in the industry, adding that if there is a common interest, there will be better broadband penetration in the country.

Anago said there is need to improve broadband penetration for non private universities, saying students need to do research. “We also need to look in to secondary and primary schools for broadband penetration, because that is where the university students are trained from. If information is known from the primary schools, we will have more excellent students in the secondary and university,” he said.

He urged the Federal Government to seek advice from organisations that are into information management to assist them in the implementation of the policies it has put in place to manage information.

He lamented that the government has a lot of policies, but noted that it lacks proper information management.

“This is not to say that there is a challenge with the policies, but with its implementation. Only Lagos State, out of the 36 states in the country has implemented its policies on information management,” he said.

He urged the government to stop rolling out policies and focus on implementation, adding that the private sector must come together to execute the government policy in line with international standard in order to improve the economy.

The major challenges on information management in Nigeria, he noted, are the people, awareness and capacity building, stressing that there is need to teach the upcoming professionals on how to manage information.

“The private sector needs to help the public sector. In the private sector, we know the policies in government, we should help the government to review, improve and implement its policies. We need to have more laws on information management. The private sector can draft the bills and pass them on to the National Assembly, which will pass them into law,” he said.

 

He urged the private sector to implement policies and prevent leakages of information. He said: “We should educate people and build capacity. The private sector should share its knowledge and let people know how to protect information management in the country,” he said.

Anago urged the private sector to stop the idea of facing their organizations alone. “We should all come together to write a good frame work for Nigeria on information management, review it, get experts across the world to look at it and then pass the bill. We cannot be investing our money and the government is taking our taxes without doing anything. At the end of the day, we will find it difficult to reinvest. We need to have relationship to ensure that everything is done properly with the government,” he said.