Stakeholders seek rejuvenation of policies to stimulate telecom investment

Stakeholders in the telecommunication industry have mulled that as the executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta,  officially commenced his second term in office this month, there should be rejuvenation of policies to stimulate telecom investment.

One critical area that is begging for attention is broadband penetration especially with the submission of National Broadband Plan which the commission is playing supervisory role of its implementation.

It will be recalled that the Federal Government has set broadband penetration target of 70 per cent by 2025; hence it has become imperative for more realistic approach to issues that will assist the sector to achieve the set target.

Stakeholders have therefore tasked the federal government and its regulatory agency to review its existing policies and ensure a business friendly environment if the country will be able to achieve the new broadband penetration target of 70 per cent.

The stakeholders bemoaned that a review has become necessary due to the little impact of the existing policies and environmental conditions.

According to them, “Operators are grappling with the stifling effect of high business costs occasioned by ballooning interest expense on borrowings and a burdensome tax regime, while the long delays in processing right of way permits and their arbitrary costing models are the main reasons for the prohibitive cost of leasing transmission infrastructure in the country.

“This is in addition to the incessant cost of repairing damaged fibre infrastructure as a result of cable theft or damage during road construction, and insufficient electricity supply requiring operators to invest heavily in alternative energy projects to power base transceiver stations (BTS)”.

Commenting on this development, Chairman, Association Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Gbenga Adebayo, said that policy will do more towards any targeted broadband penetration.

He cautioned that granting multiple operational licenses to operators does not guarantee investment in that regard, stressing that it is implementation of well-articulated policies that will encourage operators to invest their money.

He tasked government to go beyond granting of licenses to eliminating those barriers in securing ‘right of way’; impediments to smooth network operations, where operators are forced to pay levies that are not legalized, and vandalisation.

He highlighted 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 disclosed that operators with big money that secured licenses to roll out broadband services are yet to invest in provision of infrastructure because of clumsy process of securing ‘right of way’ from various government agencies.

President, Association of Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ATCON), Engr. Olusola Teniola, speaking on the use of TV White space technology for broadband service, noted that TV white space is an experimental application to try out in areas of congestion or scarcity of radio frequency.

“In Nigeria, the regulator NCC in collaboration with National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) have oversight function on this spectrum, and they have not defined how, where and what application to deploy using these free slots- a free space in spectrum.

“TV white space is being used to try and test viability of broadband using those slots until NCC has approved and issue licenses for its usage.

“It is one of the several ways of broadband type application. Others are spectrum 2.6GHZ, 800MHZ among others. These spectrums should be made available in timely manner by NCC at affordable prize so that in addition to TV white space operators both large and small can have wide options choices for broadband network rollout in Nigeria.