History as Nigeria Push for Broadband Right for Citizens

The long-sought panacea to poverty eradication in Nigeria may indeed be within reach with the first ambitious initiative to make sure that all Nigerians have access to affordable and truly ubiquitous broadband internet, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now report.

Tagged “Broadband Rights Project – Africa”, the scheme seeks to empower Nigeria and other African countries to take their place in the global economy, overcoming traditional barriers like geography, language and resource constraints.

The project was flagged off at the Openmedia Group and Atlantic Telecoms & Media Ltd International Forum on Accelerating Nationwide Broadband Access in Nigeria

The forum with the theme “Towards widespread accessibility and affordability of Broadband in Nigeria” provided an open platform for dialogue on the implementation of the nation’s Broadband plan and considered available technologies and tested concepts that can help achieve the goals of Government for faster attainment of inclusive broadband access in Nigeria.

Ernest Ndukwe, chairman, Openmedia Group and president of Broadband Right Africa, said that the Broadband Right Africa (BR-Africa) was borne out of the drive to make broadband truly ubiquitous and affordable.
                                     
“If all State Governors in Nigeria, for instance, become Broadband Rights Advocates, Nigeria would become a broadband enabled environment in a couple of years.

“That would be ‘free’ for the rest of Africa, if the leaders become committed advocates like Paul Kigame of Rwanda,” he said.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can also report that some countries have made it their responsibility to ensure that Internet access is broadly available.

These countries do not unreasonably restrict an individual's access to the Internet. Some have also gone as far as recognizing Internet access s a right by their laws.

Omobola Johnson, minister of Communication Technology and known advocate of broadband for development said that the federal government, through the National Broadband Policy (NBP) has stamped its commitment to remove bottlenecks in broadband deployment.

Johnson said that the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked between Lagos State Government and the industry to cut the cost of Right of Way (RoW) from N5,000 to N500 was achievable through engagement and advocacy, expressing confidence that other States will follow the trend.

“The challenges that have prevented us to achieve certain targets in terms of broadband affordability are real. But, we are not relenting. We have scaled the first phase by documenting a National Broadband Policy which is even ahead of ITU’s target of 2015.

“Part of the process is educating State Governments on the need to reduce costs on the part of the investors and operators. At a time, we had meeting with Commissioners from the 36 States and that led to the MoU between the industry and the Lagos State Government. We have targets and they are work in progress.

She added that the recent 2.3GHZ spectrum allocation was part of the processes to unleashing robust infrastructure to drive broadband availability and affordability; hopefully with a successful digital broadcasting migration, more spectrums shall be made available.