G-MAX Will Slash Internet Costs, Make it Ubiquitous- Nwosu

Engr. Gerald Nwosu, is the Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Wireless Communications Ltd, a Broadband Internet Solutions company providing the revolutionary G-Max brand of convergent services in Nigeria. A trained and chartered engineer of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) London, Nwosu is also registered as a Professional Engineer in Alberta, Canada. He has worked in both the ICT and the Petroleum industry in many parts of the world since 1985. Nwosu spoke about his company and other issues in this interview with chris alu in Abuja.

About G-Max
G-Max stands for Galaxy Wireless Communications’ implementation of the WiMAX broadband technology. We not only utilize the principles of WiMax but hope to extend it such that we are not confined to that technology alone.
Our aim is to give a speedy broadband internet service using the necessary infrastructure at an affordable price, in order to make it ubiquitous in the country.
Right now we started our services in Abuja and Port-Harcourt but we hope to extend our services to 16 states before the end of the year.
We plan to build an internet cloud over Nigeria so that everyone can have access to it in and around the country.
Accessibility and Cost
The challenge we always face is in providing these services at an affordable operating cost, the most dominant of which is the cost of internet bandwidth.
As you may be aware, the same bandwidth costs ten times in Nigeria than in North America or India for that matter. For instance in this country satellite bandwidth goes as much as $7,000 per Mbit/s full duplex while those in India pay about $500 per Mbit/s for a fibre-optic connection with its superior latency characteristics.
It is because of the high cost of bandwidth that made us to sign the agreement with O3b Networks Ltd to deploy a new high capacity backhaul infrastructure to provide high-speed, low-cost Internet connectivity to our subscribers in Nigeria.
We hope that within a span of one or two years, we would be providing quality service with high speed connectivity at much cheaper rates than we have today.
We are also planning some new strategies that will make people get used to or have greater access to internet facilities at an affordable rate. Even though we are encountering other challenges which include erratic power supply and manpower shortages, we are still confident that broadband internet will spread through the country.
High Speed Internet
We do not, as a nation, even have enough fibre-optic capacity and that is an impediment to greater internet speeds. If we have reliable fibre-optic connectivity then it will be a different proposition. But there is hope because Galaxy Wireless is collaborating actively with other companies to use other innovative technologies including satellite technology and provide internet services and connectivity at high speed.
For now majority of Nigerians are not experiencing genuine broadband internet services because of the high cost of bandwidth and so many other issues.
Interconnectivity between Operators
We are not a telephone operator but a broadband internet company so I cannot really comment on interconnectivity issues between the different phone operators in the telecom industry. In the broadband space however, there is really no issue of interconnectivity between operators. In the internet, connectivity is simply having access to the Information Super Highway as quickly as possible so that you can do your business without delay, while in the telecoms sector you need to be connected to various networks like MTN, Glo, Zain.
Infrastructure Issues
Nigeria is still behind in the provision of necessary infrastructure needed for ubiquitous broadband. I think what the government should do is provide infrastructure for the private sector to move in and do the last-mile or if government cannot do it, then the enabling environment needs to be created for private sector participation. 
Sea Cable Initiative and Laying Of Fibre Optics Around the Country
As I mentioned earlier, what we need is fibre-optic capacity and every other thing boils down to bandwidth, whether by sea cables or fibre optic on land. The most important thing is the provision of the needed infrastructure so that ISPs can dispense their services on to consumers at affordable rates.
However, there are several initiatives in the pipeline and we are hopeful that on fruition, Nigeria will really be connected to the Information Super Highway.
What Government Must Do
Government is supposed to provide the needed infrastructure for ISPs to ride on and provide better services or sustain the enabling environment for some sort of collaboration with the private sector. We are aware that government is equally trying to work out some initiatives for basic infrastructure deployment that will help our operations in the country.
There are initiatives like SABI (State Accelerated Broadband Initiative) and others being handled by USPF but is still some time before we are yet to start reaping those dividends.
The much needed infrastructure investment needs to be addressed quickly to avoid Nigeria falling into the Information Dark Age.
Global Recession
The big issue is that if the recession bites deeper, people may cut down on the use of internet services as it may be classed as a luxury item.
We do believe that when people really understand what internet is all about, despite the crisis it will be necessary for them to use it, especially during difficult times in order to even find out how to cope.
We hope though that the crisis does not deepen and adversely affect the sector but we are taking several measures to cushion the effect on our business.
Of more serious concern is the sharp depreciation of our local currency against the US Dollar over the past few months which increased our cost of doing business by more than 55% as we buy bandwidth in US Dollars and sell our services in Naira.
Other Challenges
One of the biggest challenges we are facing is power.
Poor power supply is really affecting the industry making us spend a huge portion of our operating expenses on fuel, diesel and plant maintenance.
Another challenge that we tend to forget is manpower.
The needed manpower to fill several vacancies in the communication sector is difficult to come by in this country and this has been a serious challenge to all the operators. It is really unfortunate that in a country with high unemployment, there still remain many jobs that cannot be filled due to lack of local expertise.
Many companies have now resorted to hiring expatriates as a way of attempting to solve this problem which entails additional expenses.
This really goes back to the quality of education in Nigeria and this remains an issue that requires urgent and concerted attention by both the government and the private sector. A situation where we produce illiterate graduates from the universities must be seen as unacceptable. We therefore need to take a hard look at this issue and address it for our own national interest as no nation can develop without a sound educational backbone.
Galaxy has recently launched an e-Learning Initiative to connect our universities to the World Wide Web in order to provide the much-needed access to content required by our schools. This is our way of contributing to education in our country.