InfraCo: ATCON Rues Delays, Seeks Multiplicity of License Per Zone

The Association of Telecomunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), has decried snail pace processes in the licensing of Infrastructure Company (InfraCo) to drive broadband infrastructure deployments in the country.

Engineer Lanre Ajayi, President of ATCON, informed management of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) during a visit to the headquarters in Abuja, that, the Association is concerned licensing of infraco operators are being unduly delayed, even as it is limited to one operator per defined geographic zone.

The telecoms regulator in 2013 launched bid to creating InfraCo to roll out a national fibre optic network for broadband under a Presidential plan to boost high speed Internet services across Nigeria. ‎

The proposed InfraCo is envisaged to aggregate fibre optic links of other existing operators and will also get a one-off subsidy from government, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission document spelling out the planned roadmap.‎

‎Speaking on the plan, Ajayi said, "We applaud the NCC for coming up with concept of infraco. We believe it has the capability to address the issue of non openness to bacckhaul access.

"However, we are concerned that licensing of Infraco operators are being unduely delayed. We are also particularly concerned that license is being limited to one operator per defined geographic zone. We beleieve having just one operator in a zone creates monoploy and it may inadvertently bring us back to the dreadful days of NITEL.

"We canvass for multiplicity of license per zone. This will not create options and competition but will also increase diversity on variuos routes where cables are to be layed thereby increasing reliablity on our networks‎".

ATCON's interventions are coming amid the planned sale of 2.3GHz frequency spectrum by the Nigerian Communications Commission which is promoting equal access to fibre links on open access basis to service providers.