The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gwandu

  • Gwandu seeks minimal constraints on 5G spectrum

    A former Acting Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Bashir Gwandu, has urged all African countries and those in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to ensure that the process of making spectrum available for 5G is less cumbersome.

    Gwandu who is also and Chairman of the Commonwealth International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Group, said telecoms regulators should work towards spectrum policies that should not only guarantee availability of appropriate spectrum, but also any spectrum that is to be allocated by the ITU in the upcoming World Radiocommunication conference 2019 (WRC-19) should have minimal constraints for its use.

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    In his remarks at the Ongoing SADC preparatory meeting holding in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, Gwandu laid special emphasis on the need for all African countries to continue with the effort of ensuring that 26GHz band along with the whole of 40GHz as well as 66GHz bands are made available for 5G through relevant identification for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) Advance.

  • Kebbi records 16 deaths from 140 destroyed houses

    Kebbi records 16 deaths from 140 destroyed houses

    The Kebbi State Emergency Management Agency ( SEMA ) says it recorded 16 deaths from 140 destroyed residential houses in 2017.

    The Executive Director of the agency, Alhaji Abbas Kamba, made this known in an interview in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday.

    Kamba said the data on the loss of houses was obtained from the state Fire Service Department, stressing that fire incidents also resulted in the loss of property worth billions of Naira during the period under review.

    He said the agency also recorded incidents of destructive windstorm at Maiyama, Gwandu, Aliero and Birnin Kebbi Local Government Areas where 90 per cent of the residential houses were destroyed while many people were injured.

    Kamba revealed that many lives and properties were lost on daily basis due to road crashes in the state.

    “In 2017, record shows that 46 crashes involving 41 commercial and 25 private vehicles led to the death of 55 people and 216 people injured during the period,” he said.

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    According to him, flood also destroyed many residential properties in Birnin Kebbi, Jega, Aliero, Bagudo and Dandi Local Government Areas of the state.

    “Canoe and boat accidents along Dole Kaina and Yauri waterways also led to loss of lives and property in 2017,” Kamba said.

    He said the agency collaborated with the National Orientation Agency ( NOA ) to sensitise residents on how to handle inflammable materials during harmatan period across the state in order to reduce fire incidents.

    “We organised sensitisation workshop involving road managers and road users to reduce road crashes; we developed strategies on migrants and migration issues in the state; trained grass root emergency volunteer groups and traditional rulers on emergency issues, among other measures,” he said.

    The executive director said the agency would map out proactive strategies in 2018 to reduce loss of property and lives through disasters.

    NAN

  • Appeal Court reinstates Emir of Gwandu

    The Court of Appeal in Sokoto yesterday upheld the decision of the Kebbi High Court, which reinstated the deposed Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo.

    The appellate court ordered that his salaries and entitlements for the 10 years he was not on the throne be paid to him.

    The incumbent Emir, Alhaji Muhammad Bashar, had appealed the judgment of the lower court, which reinstated Jokolo.

    In a unanimous judgment, the three judges, led by Justice Tunde Awotoye, held that the deposition of Jokolo by the then governor contravened sections 6 and 7 of the Chiefs Appointment and Deposition Law of the state.

    “It was because the governor neither made an enquiry into the allegation against the emir nor consulted the Council of Chiefs before arriving at his decision.

    “The former governor’s action contradicted Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

    “The deposed emir was not given a fair hearing before he was dethroned and as such the decision was null and void,” the court held.

    The judge ordered the reinstatement of Jokolo and payment of his 10 years’ salaries and entitlements.

    Counsel to the appellant, Mr. Hassan Zakariyya, said they were not satisfied with the judgment.

    He said they would study it and advise their client on the next step.

    But Jokolo’s lawyer Mr. Ahmadu Zumaru hailed the court and described the judiciary as the last hope of the common man.

  • Gwandu, others discuss 5G at global telecoms forum

    Mr Bashir Gwandu, a former acting Executive Vice Chairman  (EVC) and Executive Commissioner, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) was  one of the chief presenters at a two-day conference  organised last week by the Wireless World Research Forum to discuss challenges and implementation in the new generation of communication technology, the 5G, which proposes a total connected  life.

    It provided a platform to discuss global standardisation, global co-operation and interoperability, looking at how a user-centric approach can be used to identify and overcome the obstacles and challenges connected to a 5G future.

    Presentations were made by some industry leaders and experts, and specific sessions for this year’s event included:  Building a Globally Agreed Vision for 5G Development and Deployment, Creating the 5G Architecture, Overcoming the Obstacles to 5G Deployment, Revolutionary New Use Cases and Implications for Industry, New Business Models and Commercial Opportunities Across Different Sectors (using the Automotive Industry as a sector case study).

    Some of the features expected of the 5G as raised in the conference includes very low sub-millisecond round-trip latency (delay) of 5G signal, Better security to avoid hacking, better location identification, ultra-broadband speed of over 10Gbps, distributed content and processing, much better coverage and availability, low power consumption, high-order Mimo antenna systems, use of sub-6GHz or the spectrum between 6GHz and 100GHz, and whether or not the network should evolve from the 4G-LTE or simply new type of network, etc. Projected applications include machine to machine to people communications, autonomous cars and robots, and super wireless cloud computing etc.

    The 5G has already been tested inJapan by Huawei and NTT DOCOMO using sub-6GHz bands and in a public place, unlike previous experiments, which are usually conducted in a lab.

    The carrier managed to reach peak speeds of 3.6 Gbps where as the fastest average 4G LTE speeds come from Spain at 18 Mbps.