FG, Operators Battle NRTP Log Jam

With an agreement in sight and some budgetary provisions, National Rural Telephony Project (NRTP), the $200 million initiative designed to take telephony to underserved areas in the country is set to take off this year, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.

Already, stakeholders have renewed efforts to resolve all gray responsible for the delay in the project conceived by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration some 12 years ago.

Engr. Gerry Ekesiani, chief executive officer, Voicewares Networks Limited, one of the operators of the project that won the contract to operate South-east and Benue exchanges, confirmed the moves.

An official of the Ministry of Communications Technology, who did not want to be named because the official is not authorized to speak, said that some funds have been appropriated to the project.

But Ekesiani, told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that  “We are working progressively. If all parties keep to our agreement, operators of NRTP will be able to roll out service this year”

Former President Obasanjo wanted to use NRTP to cover 218 local government areas in the first phase and provide over 636,256 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) lines in the 774 local government areas and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the second phase to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the House of Representative Committee on Communications has also been mandated to find out issues delaying the full take of the project.

The House of Representative Committee has met with operators in order to find a way out of the log jam.

Ekesiani said that the project will take off as soon as operators of the project and the ministry of Communications Technology sign the contract agreement.

This is however tied to the ministry of Communications Technology getting the certificate of no objection from Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).

Ekesiani said the ministry is yet to get this certificate of no objection due mainly to bureaucratic bottleneck.

The official of the Ministry of Communications Technology collaborated Ekesiani saying the ministry needed to take its time to do a proper job.

Ekesiani however warned that the continued delay of the project is jeopardizing full realization of the objective of the project.

According to him, the 800Mzh frequency allocated to them is no longer suitable for delivery of broadband and urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to allow the operators chance to upgrade to 2.3Ghz.

He explained that 2.3Ghz is robust for broadband service delivery which NRTP is designed for.

Ekesiani added that the continued delay in the rollout of services is causing Association of Rural Telephony Operators of Nigeria (ARTON) financial losses while the equipment have become object of vandals and thieves.

He also warned that the equipment may become obsolete by the time the final approval is obtained as CDMA 2000 1x technology installed for the project is a legacy.