Stakeholders Seek Use of Wireless to Achieve Universal Access

Information and Communications Technology stakeholders have advocated for the use of wireless technology to connect the unconnected in achieving universal access.
They spoke at the fourth edition of the annual Stakeholders Forum of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in conjunction with IT& Telecom Digest, an ICT magazine held in Lagos.
Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who was represented by Funlola Akiode, NCC’s head of economic analysis and corporate financing; said that the theme of the forum which was ‘Wireless Technology as a Means to Achieving Universal Access,’ rightly captures the way the country should be going at a time like this especially in an attempt to capture the rural underserved people.
The NCC boss further reiterated the activities of the Commission in the last two years as a deliberate attempt at promoting wireless connectivity to rural areas of the country.
“In the past two years the NCC has declared each year as the year of Broadband. What the Commission has done within this period is to encourage the roll out of broadband facilities in the country so as to encourage people, whether in the cities or in the rural areas to develop broadband attitude and learn t deploy the technology for daily operations,” he said.
This he said has been supported by the deliberate policy of encouraging new technologies that will enhance the nation’s communications backbone. According to him, through the various licensing regimes at the NCC, we have made deliberate efforts to encourage new technologies including the various genres of wireless by way of building a strong communications backbone which we currently missed in fixed network. If properly deployed, all the operators including, Fixed Wireless, GSM, Gateway, and other licensees including the recently licensed 2.3GHz, will build the kind of backbone that can carry the needed traffic for the country. Such operations will feature various technologies, including: 2.3G, 3G, 3.5G, CDMA 2001X, EVDO, WiFi, WiMAX, UMTS, EDGE, and other next generation networks, NGN.
Ndukwe added that the foundation for today’s success in the telecommunications sector of the country was laid in 2001 through the widely acclaimed Mobile auction, “which initially made provisions for four operators to hit the market with products initially was a major step forward. Apart from the money raked into the country at the time, at $285 million per license, growth ever since has demonstrated that the NCC took the right decision.”
As a result, today, Nigeria has 67 million lines as at February this year according to the NCC boss, he said this has been made possible through the combination of various technologies – GSM technology, satellite and fixed technology, among others.
Speaking as an integral part of what has become known as the Nigerian telecommunications  revolution, Bekele Tadesse, sales director of Harris Stratex for Nigeria and West Africa, described the NCC as a most innovative and sensitive regulator whose policies have further strengthened the country’s telecom development.
He described the transparent and open liberal processes of the NCC as worthy of commendation.
Bekele took time out to inform the gathering of the various new products and services that Harris Stratex has in store to facilitate easy and efficient roll-out for operators in the various market segments of the telecoms industry in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.
Engr. Ajayi, president, Nigeria Internet Group, corroborate Engr Ndukwe’s optimism when he announced that the country was most certainly going to experience a Broadband revolution by December 2010 at a time when he said the Main One Cable, a first ever private undersea cable initiative by a Nigerian company, would have become operational. The NIG boss said this cable would reduce the cost of internet by about 90 per cent or more and this he said was bound to reduce the overt dependence on the SAT-3 cable that has enjoyed a monopoly of the sector for a long time.
In a remark, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, president, The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (Atcon)  who was the chairman of the occasion said that the power and advantage that Broadband would bring into the hands of Nigerian people especially the rural underserved population which is more than 70 per cent of the country’s population, is enormous and would be difficult to be quantified in mere currency value.
He agreed with Engr. Ajayi that the new cable systems due for launch in the country would cause a massive change in attitude of the way and manner the people of the country communicate, stating that the capacity for Broadband would be further increased with the likely launch of the Glo-1 Cable due for launch by the second national operator, Globacom sometime this year.
In his modest assessment of the massive growth in the nation’s telecom industry, Romain Weryk, Commercial Attache in the French Embassy wondered why many French companies are not involved in the growth and gains of the Nigerian telecommunications segment of the economy. He urged French telecom companies to take the advantage in the astronomic growth in the country’s telecoms sector and launch into the largest market in Africa.
Reacting to the revocation of the 2.3GHz license Dr. Ekuwem described it as a mere rumour saying that until it is appropriately communicated to him, he would not take it as a fact. He however said that if it turns out to be the truth, then there would be a need for a thorough investigation of what went wrong.
The annual NCC-IT& Telecom Digest Stakeholders Forum is a programme designed to bringing together the regulator of the industry and the various industry stakeholders to discuss common issues and matters that concern the industry and seek solutions on how best to move forward in the best interest of Nigerians.