Broadband vision will be private sector-driven –NCC

The Nigerian broadband agenda will be private sector-driven, with the government not having any shares in the infrastructure companies to be floated for the purpose.

The government will only encourage the InfraCos (as they are called) by providing the financial incentives.

The Nigerian Communications Commission stated this at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain.

A statement by the NCC, which was obtained on Monday, also noted that commission intensified its efforts at wooing the international community to invest in the broadband sector being projected as a major catalyst to unlock the various sectors of the country’s economy.

In his address titled at the event, titled, ‘A vision for digital Africa’, the Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said, “Our broadband vision will be driven mainly by the private sector. Government will only encourage InfraCos by providing the financial incentives but government will not have any shares in any of these companies.”

He said the country was going to continue to have a huge broadband network with wireless tails connecting homes, stressing, “There is a huge market there in Nigeria and the profitability is not in doubt, if we are to look at what happened in the mobile sector where operators are still trying to meet the demand.”

Other areas of opportunity, according to Juwah, are in the InfraCos that will be licensed soon to provide metropolitan fibre and wholesale transmission services on a non-discriminatory and open access basis.

“Besides, the 700MHz, 2.5MHz and 2.6MHz will be up for sale before the end of the year and this will provide significant opportunity for new players to get into the field,” he added.

Juwah stressed the government’s readiness to give financial incentives to new investors in the broadband sector matched with the regulatory transparency that would give maximum protection and encouragement to investors.

He urged players in the telecoms space to invest in Nigeria and play more visible role in the government’s drive for broadband deployment, explaining that the Nigerian government was pursuing a multi-track approach to make the environment friendlier to operators and other service providers.

In his paper, ‘Creating a sustainable ICT sector in Nigeria through mobile broadband,’ Juwah gave sundry statistics to demonstrate that although the country had made tremendous progress in the voice sector, the broadband sector which recently received the attention of the government, was a virgin area waiting to be tapped into by resourceful entrepreneurs.

His paper provoked a discussion among a panel of experts that comprised: the Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Michael Ikpoki; the Executive Head of Regulatory Affairs, Vodacom, Mortimer Hope; and the Director of Business Strategy Research, University of Columbia, Prof. Raul Katz.

Other discussants included the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Uganda, Mr. John Nasasira; and the Minister of Telecommunication and Postal Services, South Sudan, Rebecca Joshua Okwaci.

With connected mobile numbers standing at over 120 million and nine terabyte capacity of international bandwidth, the country’s 6.1 per cent of broadband connectivity presents a huge demand that will immediately make Nigeria a viable market, according to Juwah.

He admitted that a lot of investments needed to be put into the industry, such as the rolling out of the metropolitan fibre and last mile connection.

This, he noted, explained why the country recently carried out an auction of 2.3GHz for a wholesale broadband service provider.

Juwah also spoke on the efforts of the government to foster an efficient ICT industry.

He listed the measures as: a clear regulatory framework governing the telecommunications industry; a fair, firm and forthright regulator overseeing the industry; and an enabling environment with incentives to operators to roll out networks across the country.

Juwah specifically mentioned the efforts of the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omonola Johnson, who had been in talks with various levels of government to facilitate speed in processing permits, harmonising tax regimes and deploying infrastructure.

The harmonised efforts of the government, Juwah explained further, would create an enabling environment for easy and efficient deployment of fibre optics transmission networks to provide the required transport infrastructure and enhance a compatible market while improving consumer choices.

In his contribution, the MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Ikpoki, affirmed that operators had benefitted from the government actions.

 Juwah had promised during his presentation to be very prudent in the management of the frequencies available for telecoms activities and to ensure they were put to use in the best way possible.

His position seems to have been heavily supported by officials of an equipment vendor and manufacturer, Ericcson.

In a special programme with the theme, ‘Living life in networked society’, organised for select chief executives from around the world, the officials said that spectrum was the most valuable resource and would become more important than oil in due course.

They encouraged regulators to move away from silo regulation towards a holistic direction.

They also said spectrum management should be tied to performance by the various service providers in an operating environment so that the people could benefit.

They warned that in the long run, GSM would not be a viable fall back for mobile broadband.

But the NCC maintained that the Nigerian government had thought deeply about this technology trend before rolling out the broadband plan, saying the recent auction of a 2.3GHz frequency and the planned licensing of InfraCos and other spectrum bands were geared towards encouraging a massive development of broadband infrastructure.