Revealed! Why ISPs are Dying

Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (Ispan) has attributed the death of traditional internet service providers  (ISPs) in the country to wrong business model, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.

Engr. Sam Adeleke, chairman, Ispan, who disclosed this, said that some traditional ISPs that could not change their business model from providing bandwidth to content as well as introduction of mobility or portable service are the ones cut in the web of distress that struck the industry.

This is coming in the wake of acquisition of 4G service of Direct On PC (DoPC) by Swift Networks, a major player in data provisioning.

He said that there is need for ISPs to expand their scope in view of competition with Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) providers that also provide internet services.

Adeleke decried the mistake by the Nigerian Communications Commission in the implementation of State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI), by granting MTN, a GSM operator license to operate

He frowned at the policy of encouraging internet penetration through government subsidy describing it as counter productive.

The Ispan boss said that instances abound to prove that any effort at providing internet to Nigerians based on government incentives ends as soon as such incentive is withdrawn.

He called for a  private investment driven approach towards increasing internet penetration in the country.

“This is why we are encouraging our members to merge in order to compete favourably in term of investment in infrastructure and content. Knowing that Nigerians use internet for email, chat or social media, there is need to provide content with internet which is the future of internet provision in the country,” he stated.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek had reported that in spite of abundant bandwidth from various undersea cables and its attendant drop in cost, internet services are still epileptic, due to challenges of right of way which is a government permit to dig and lay fibre infrastructure for transmission of bandwidth as well as spectrum management.

Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton), the umbrella body of operators in the telecom space, said that granting multiple operational licenses to operators to provide metro and national fibre infrastructure does not guarantee investment in that regard, but implementation of  well articulated policies that will encourage operators to invest their money.

He said Government must go beyond granting of licenses to eliminating those barriers such as bottlenecks in securing ‘right of way’, impediments to smooth network operations- where operators are forced to pay levies that are not legalized, and vandalisation.

Adebayo, explained that broadband services are anchored on availability of bandwidth, and that with excess capacity of it at our shore, investment need to be encouraged to distribute this capacity to various geographical areas of the country for broadband revolution to be experienced as is the case with voice service.

He added that unless these barriers are addressed it may be difficult for operators to invest in infrastructure that will enable provision of broadband.