National Licenses Hurting Broadband Revolution - Experts

Unless spectrum planning and allocation is done in clear and harmonized basis, many Nigerians will not get shares of the so called digital dividends while greater broadband connectivity that will boost economic growth, and enhanced social value will continue to be a fantasy, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has been told.
Spectrum, otherwise frequency is a scarce resource and the extremely rapid technical developments in mobile communication services have resulted in a boom in demand for use of radio frequencies.
The sum of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC’s) frequency management policy encourages the use of spectrum, taking account of the economic, cultural, scientific and social aspects as well as considerations of security.
But Engr. Bayo Banjo, president, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), has urged regulatory authorities not to lock the scarce resource in the name of national licenses, most of which does not have the financial capacity to expand beyond certain geographical borders.
According to him, granting national licenses to ISPs without spread and financial muscles amounts to locking up such frequency which would have been allocated to fringe operators in other parts of the country.
He cited an example of some companies that were issued national 2.3 GHz licenses but have rolled out only in Lagos.
Instead of locking out those frequencies, the NIG president, suggested d that the license should be broken into categories either across the 36 states or even into more zones and if one of the firms is found not to be performing, its license should be revoked.
Nodding in agreement, Ross Bateson, special adviser on government at GSMA said that harmonized access to spectrum is vital for bringing down cost of mobile broadband equipment.
Bateson also called on the government to release core harmonized bands at 2.5GHz so that Nigerian consumers can benefit from the most affordable terminals.
Both Banjo and Bateson urged government to create conducive environment that will attract players to some areas classified as commercially non viable.
But Banjo decried the move by the Nigerian Communications Commission to control the 5.8 GHZ unlicensed spectrum, which he said should be discouraged.
“There has been a move by the NCC to control the 5.8 GHZ unlicensed spectrum, I think this should be discouraged. There is a reason why we have the 2.4GHZ and 2.5GHZ left open unlicensed, it is designed mainly to encourage people to innovate and to test and when they finish testing what they want to do because of interference they can then go to licensed frequencies, so government should leave those frequencies alone.” He added
Banjo also made case for more powers to the NCC for it to effectively regulate the industry, given the relevance of telecommunications which is becoming like water supply, electricity supply and affects the population at large.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of the broadband revolution as a number of factors have served to hobble the various efforts.

Among them is the furore between the then Ministry of Information & Communications and the NCC over the 2.3GHz licensing process is 2009.