Broadband availability is adjudged a major enabler of socio-economic change and key driver of development, beginning from e-governance, e-commerce, tele-medicine and even agriculture. Lucas Ajanaku reports that the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Forum held in Abuja charted the way forward for broadband implementation for Nigeria.
The inequalities generated by ICTs have almost become too big for us to overcome. Now is the time to make a difference. Now is the time to turn rhetoric into reality.”
These were the words of the Secretary-General, Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO), Prof Tim Unwir, in a keynote address he delivered at the just-concluded CTO Forum in Abuja. He warned of the dangers inherent in depriving people access to the tools of ICT.
His words: “The expansion of ICTs over the last decade has made the world a more unequal place. Put simply, these technologies are hugely powerful. Those who have access to them, and know how to use them, can benefit immensely. But those who do not have access, who only have an old style mobile ‘phone, who cannot afford the costs of connectivity, are becoming increasingly disadvantaged. This is not only a moral agenda, but also a very practical social and political one, because, sooner or later, the disadvantaged will – and I have no doubt about this – seek to redress the balance by taking (the law) action into their own hands, as we see across so many parts of the world today.”
He stressed the need for more people to have access to ICT tools, develop new models through which such access can be provided at an affordable price to those who do not currently have. He also spoke of crafting an innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships to ensure such delivery, adding that there is a need to involve governments, the private sector, civil society, international organisations and bilateral donors in providing solutions that will serve the needs of everyone in our societies.
According to Unwir, providing broadband connectivity is only a beginning. “If we do not work with the poorest and most marginalised in our societies, truly, to understand their needs, and then develop solutions that will be of explicit benefit to them, as much as to the privileged rich and elite , then the divisions within our societies will only increase further,” he added
“Quite simply, we cannot deliver on the title of this forum, “Innovation through Broadband” unless we actually have broadband. Many of the CTO’s members have less than five per cent of their population connected to the internet; my own country, the UK, still has 17 per cent of its households not connected,” he said.
Sometime in 2008, former Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, declared the year as ‘Year of Broadband.’ Subsequently, several fora organised by public and private sectors of the economy focused on how to make broadband available and accessible to Nigerians at an affordable rate.
Wikipedia defines broadband as a ”Telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device; the broader the band, the greater the capacity for traffic.”
The Federal Government recently took a bold step by unveiling the National Broadband Plan 2012-2018 with very ambitious targets. The government has taken another bold step of setting up another committee that will see to the implementation of the plan.
The EVC/CEO, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said the Commission’s strategy is accelerated broadband deployment, adding that the broadband plan of the regulator will serve as a template for implementation. He said the strategy would answer questions such as whether it is going to be private or public sector-led. Juwah added that patnership is key to a successful implementation. He also said spectrum would be allocated while incentives would be given to firms for roll-out.
He reiterated that the ‘Open Access Model,’ an initiative that provides a framework for infrastructure sharing, will be adopted for the roll-out.
“This structure will ensure vibrancy in the market and prevent dominance as no company will be allowed to play in more than two of the service layers and the equity participation in bidding consortia for the licences will be controlled,” Juwah said.
Communications Technology Minster, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said bandwidth capacity in undersea fibre-optic networks has increased significantly. According to her, Nigeria had access to a potential of 4.7 6 terabytes/second (Tb/s) of international bandwidth capacity at the time the ministry was created in about three years ago. Since then, an additional 5.1 Tb/s of capacity has been added, making a total of 10Tb/s, and this total is expected to increase further to a potential 15Tb/s by next year.
Broadband has often been described as having the potential to transform the way people live, learn, work and play. That explains why countries, especially the technologically advanced, are investing heavily on the provision of broadband access for their citizens.
According to a 2010 US National Broadband Policy document, broadband was described as: “The great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century. Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life. It is enabling entire new industries and unlocking vast new possibilities for existing ones. It is changing how we educate children, deliver health care, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government, and access, organise and disseminate knowledge.”
Security experts say broadband access could help check growing insecurity through effective interior security system that rides on real-time inter-agency coordination, monitoring and mobilisation of personnel, especially if the broadband infrastructure is characterised by multiple carriers, multiple facilities and decentralisation. It is resilient and reliable in the event of disruption.
In e-learning, ability to provide rich multi-media content, online examination and other modern pedagogic tools ride on broadband without being subjected to variables such as income or location. e-learning could have great impact on children and individuals in remote locations or disadvantaged communities and those with physical or mental impediments that require specialised approaches to learning.
In tele-medicine, broadband enables the offering of medical advice, monitoring, diagnosis and training, delivered to the remotest regions over wireless networks and opening up the country to varities of medical attention.
Analysts argue that the nation’s electricity supply could be redefined by leveraging on broadband technology to power smart grids and control electricity supplies more accurately.
The Geneva, Switzerland-based Broadband Commission for Digital Development reported that broadband could help move the world towards a low carbon-economy and address the causes and effects of climate change.
“The understanding of the benefits that broadband can bring is at a global tipping point. Its role in GDP growth, in enabling the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and offsetting the effects of climate change is just now starting to be understood, because finally, the deployment is there and the benefits can be realised. In today’s economic climate, societies need to develop, and with a solutions-driven approach to climate change, we can accelerate a new type of green growth while supporting global sustainable development goals,” Chairman of the Commission’s Working Group on Climate Change and CEO of Ericsson, Hans Vestberg said in the report.
Similarly, a study by international management consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company showed that “a 10 per cent increase in broadband household penetration delivers a boost to a country’s GDP that ranges from (between) 0.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent.” It added that for much of Africa, broadband boost to GDP calculated by the World Bank stood at 1.38 per cent.
Director-General, National Office for Technology Acqusition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Umar Bindir, warned that Nigeria may miss the MDGs and Vision 20:2020 if the government fails to change its approch to science, technology and innovation (STI).
Former Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Prof Cleopas Angaye, said broadband is an indispensable tool to modern eonomic development, lamenting that its penetration still remains low.
“Broadband is the driver of the major benefits of connectivity but the trend of its penetration in Africa is not only very low but also reflecting a widening gap between the average African country and the more advanced countries in terms of ICT.
“A veritable means of improving access to ICT and associated tools such as the internet is the development and deployment of broadband technologies. Through broadband, wide frequencies are available to transmit multiple and huge information concurrently within a given amount of time,” Angaye noted, suggesting the building of a clear-cut broadband development policy.
