AGENDA 2012: Signposting ICT in Nigeria
An ICT Roadmap for Nigeria

A Lesson from the Chimps

Chimpanzee, colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. Similar to the human social structure, chimpanzees live in large multi-male and multi-female social groups called communities.

Within a community there is a definite social hierarchy which is dictated by the position of an individual and the influence the individual has on others. Chimpanzees live in a leaner hierarchy in which more than one individual may be dominant enough to dominate other members of lower rank. Typically there is a dominant male referred to as the Alpha male. The Alpha male is the highest-ranking male who controls the group and maintains order during any disputes.

In chimpanzee society the 'dominant male' does not always have to be the largest or strongest male but rather the most manipulative and political male who can influence the goings on within a group. Male chimpanzees typically attain dominance through cultivating allies who will provide support for that individual in case of future ambitions for power. The alpha male regularly displays by making his normally slim coat puffed up to increase view size and charge to look as threatening and as powerful as possible.

This serves to intimidate other members in an attempt to hold on to power and maintain authority, and it may be fundamental to the alpha male's holding on to his status. Lower-ranking chimpanzees will show respect by making submissive gestures in body language or reaching out their hand while grunting. Female chimpanzees will show deference to the alpha male by presenting their hind-quarters.

Female chimpanzees also have a hierarchy which is influenced by the position of a female individual within a group. In some chimpanzee communities, the young females may inherit high status from a high-ranking mother. The females will also form allies to dominate lower-ranking females. In contrast to males who have a main purpose of acquiring dominant status for access to mating privileges and sometimes violent domination of subordinates, females acquire dominant status for access to resources such as food. High-ranking females will often get first access to resources. In general, both genders acquire dominant status to improve social standing within a group.

Often, it is the females who choose the alpha male. For a male chimpanzee to win the alpha status, he must gain acceptance from the females in the community. Females have to make sure that their group is going to places that supply them with enough food. In some cases, a group of dominant females will oust an alpha male who is not to their preference and rather back up the other male who they see potential of leading the group as a successful alpha male.

Chimpanzees make tools and use them to acquire foods and for social displays; they have sophisticated hunting strategies requiring cooperation, influence and rank; they are status conscious, manipulative and capable of deception; they can learn to use symbols and understand aspects of human language including some relational syntax, concepts of number and numerical sequence; and they are capable of spontaneous planning for a future state or event.

The most striking character of the chimps, as animals, is their ability to think ahead and plan for the future. A recent study published by the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, revealed chimpanzees could choose a suitable tool for reaching a treat, carry it away and return with it to retrieve treat hours later, which shows that the apes were planning ahead for future rewards.

There is also a story about a chimp in a Swedish zoo which calmly collects stones, hoards them and even fashions concrete discs that he would later use to hurl at zoo visitors. This has reinforced researchers’ belief that chimpanzees have a highly developed consciousness, including life-like mental simulations of potential events. “They most probably have an 'inner world' like human beings in reviewing the past episodes of their lives and thinking of days to come”, researchers have asserted.

As interesting as the chimps’ story is, it points to the fact that human being as a superior animal must take planning seriously in his endeavours.

Another year has just passed by opening the way for a New Year. But then, while the events of the past years still have roles to play in the current, whatever happens in the course of the year would depend on what plans have been made at the beginning. It is therefore expedient to take a cue from the chimpanzees and plan for the days to come.

While the euphoria on the achievements of the last 10 years in the telecom industry in Nigeria lasted almost through to the end of 2011, the New Year awakens Nigerians to the reality that despite those achievements, challenges still abound; and onward, we must move. By SAMSON AKINTARO

To Stride Ahead
Just like a flash, another year has just rolled by. While many still rue the unaccomplished targets of 2011, many are looking forward to a brighter New Year. The fact remains that year 2011 has gone and can only appear in the world’s calendar as history.

The most important thing is to enter the New Year with workable plans while putting behind failures of the past year. It is often said that those who fail to plan, plan to fail, hence, from individual level to associations, corporate organisations and governments, planning is a vital issue in transiting to another year.

But then, while looking ahead into 2012, it would not be out of place to look at many events and policies of the previous year, which would definitely affect the prospects of the New Year. Obviously, for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, the year 2011 was an eventful one with lots of interesting landmarks that are definitely going to shape the industry in 2012.

In Nigeria for instance, amidst` the celebration of a decade of successful telecommunications revolution were landmark events such as the commencement of SIM card registration; the creation of a new Ministry of Communication Technology out of the hitherto Ministry of Information and Communications and the eventual appointment of an expert to manage the affairs of the new Ministry. In the same year, Nigeria made another successful entry into the space with the launch of NigComSat-1R, a replacement for NigComSat-1, which was de-orbited three years ago.

Again, while celebrating the success of GSM revolution, the issue of poor quality of service had come on the front burner as a snag on the success recorded in the telecom sector over the last 10 years. This, perhaps, explained the NCC’s clamp down on the operators towards the end of the year over poor quality of service and going forward, Nigerians are waiting to see remarkable improvements on the operators’ quality of service in the New Year. The marking of a decade of GSM revolution also came with special focus on the need to increase broadband penetration in the country and this has fuelled the persistent call on the government for broadband policy. For all stakeholders in the Nigerian ICT industry, the next milestone for the country is to achieve Broadband for all, having conquered voice.

This, in essence, has become an agenda of sort for the regulators and of course the operators and other stakeholders in the industry. Consequently, lots of promises have been made by the government and regulators in the industry to pursue broadband availability, especially when the International Telecommunications Union, (ITU), which Nigeria also belong, has issued a marching order to  member countries to make broadband connectivity available in at least 40 per cent of home holds by 2012. How far Nigeria can go with this target is still to be revealed in the course of the year.

But beyond this, what are the plans being put in place by the government to ensure that Nigeria gravitates to another level in ICT? Should the country just rely on the success of GSM and assume all will continue to be well since the country already has a robust telecoms market? What are the regulators doing to change the ICT landscape for the better in the New Year? Besides, what have been the achievements of the past year and what challenges are being carried over to the New Year?

Where We Are
No doubt Nigeria has recorded tremendous growth in the telecommunications market over the last ten years, thus emerging as one of the fastest growing telecoms market in the world while it also has the largest mobile subscriber base in Sub-Saharan Africa, with over 90 million active lines and still counting.
With the liberalisation of the Nigerian telecom sector in 2001 leading to the auction of Digital Mobile Licences, the Federal Government took a bold step that led to where we are today. The auction and the subsequent service launch marked the tipping point for the industry which since then has grown in leaps, surpassing expectations. As a result, Nigeria has realised Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) running into about $18 billion in the last ten years. Besides, there has been increase in the revenue to the Federation Account; mass direct employment of Nigerians by service providers; boost in business transaction between Nigeria and other countries of the world, among others.

However, in spite of all these, Nigeria is still at the wrung of the ladder in terms of general development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).  It is on record that despite the success of the telecoms industry the ICT sector accounted for only 3.5 per cent of GDP, compared with 10 per cent for South Africa. Statistics from the Ministry of Communication Technology also shows that Broadband penetration is still at 6.1per cent, Mobile penetration at 58.50 per 100 people and Internet penetration at 22.1 per 100 people.

Besides, Nigeria’s ICT industry is presently seen as being dominated by GSM companies with very limited assembly and manufacturing capabilities. Delivery of content is still largely through traditional methods and not online, while service based industry consists of small players; growth is also low in manufacturing due to the absence of essential support infrastructures. Again, software development is underdeveloped in the country due to lack of skills, while Research and Development, BPO and Call Centre operations are all very small.

Grappling With Poor Infrastructures
The perennial problem of erratic power supply continues to plague the country and its attendant effects continue to manifest in all sectors of the economy. According to the President of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Titi Omo-Ettu, year 2011 is “a year that the menace of erratic public power supplies still went unchecked.”
For operators in the Nigerian ICT industry, especially, the mobile service providers, power generation has become a nightmare. In fact, it was gathered that more than 60 per cent of their operating cost is basically spent on power generation. Despite this, the operators are struggling to expand their businesses, building more base stations in order to get networks across to the nooks and crannies of the country, which automatically means that their current expenditure on power generation would continue to go up.
Consequently, the GSM operators, instead of focusing on their core business, are compelled by circumstance to focus on how to generate their own power apart from building networks. It was also gathered that the four major operators in this space, MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat are powering their over 22,000 base transceiver stations with 44,000 generators. They are also providing security for their equipment which has not deterred unscrupulous Nigerians from stealing these generators and diesel.
Operators are losing an average of two generators daily and over a million litres of diesel to theft. This, no doubt, is a huge lost to bear by the operators. Again, lack of a national backbone to connect the operators has subjected the operators to extraordinary spending in building their own infrastructure. This, is not only inhibits the rate of network expansion in the country, but also adds to the huge cost of operation.
Besides, the deplorable condition of most Nigerian roads has not made it easy for the operators. Moving telecom equipments to many areas for installations have become a herculean task the operators have to live with. Yet, there is the pressing need to take services to the rural areas. Conveying equipments to riverine areas has to be done using boats, which in most cases poses a lot of risk.
Poor Quality of Service
Despite the growth of the Nigerian telecoms sector, the issue of poor quality of service still remain a source of concern. Frequency of drop calls have been the bane of telecoms services in the country. The networks experience frequent congestion at peak periods especially in the major cities. These failures combine to reduce customers’ satisfaction and make them unable to receive value for money. But is it entirely the operators’ fault? Definitely no; because the peculiar operating environment in the country also contribute to their inability to meet up with the required service standard.

Cases of telecom equipments vandalism are still rampant across the country, yet the governments have not made it easy for the operators to lay more cable as a result of extraneous charges for Right of Ways. This has prompted the persistent call by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Rajan Swaroop, on the Federal Government to declare telecom infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure. Issues of multiple taxation is also there for the operators to contend with.

On a positive note, Nigeria is recording some landmarks development with the successful landing of high capacity international submarine cables.  Glo1 and Main One have already commenced operation the country, while the West Africa Cable System (WACS) is also set to commence operation. These are also expected to be boosted by the successful launch of NIGCOMSAT-1R in December. However, with the landing of the cables, the operators are still battling with infrastructure challenges, which has been a major impediment to taking broadband to the last mile in the country. Besides, the cost of bandwidth is still very high while broadband experience is minimal.

Again, industry experts have attributed this to limited access to backbone infrastructure and limited infrastructure available for distributing the broadband traffic to consumers. They also identified absence of a national broadband policy to dive broadband internet penetration in the country as one of the biggest challenges to broadband penetration. According to the Managing Director of Main One Cable Company at a recent broadband forum, “there are a lot of demands by consumers, some Small Medium Enterprises, large corporations, educational institutions, and government establishment to have better access to information, but the challenge remains in getting the capacity in Lagos to other parts of the country.” Opeke had also called for the formulation of a national policy on broadband “to accelerate rapid penetration of broadband, lower cost of telecommunications and to speed up economic and social development.”

Where Do We Go from Here?
While the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) continues to make frantic efforts at ensuring that the Nigeria ICT industry is developed to global standard, the establishment of a new Ministry of Communication Technology came as an impetus to this drive. The Minister in charge of the Ministry, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has since swung into action, unveiling roadmaps for ICT development in the country. According to her, the mandate of the Ministry includes: Facilitating universal, ubiquitous and cost effective access to communications infrastructure that of course includes a national fibre optic backbone; Promote the utilization of ICT in all spheres of life to optimize the communications infrastructure – digital content, domestic software applications, the delivery of private and public services i.e.  ebusiness and egovernment; Promote and facilitate the development of the ICT industry and in so doing Increase the contribution of the ICT industry to GDP; Deploy information and communication technologies to drive transparency in governance and improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public service delivery.

For the Minister, now is the time to take the Nigeria telecoms sector to the next level with data, the internet and e-business and to build a more robust and successful IT industry. 
“This is the charge from Mr President to the Ministry of Communication Technology.  Our aspirations for what ICT can do for Nigeria are ambitious – we believe that policies, programmes and plans that will be embarked upon to deliver on this mandate will  provide a launch pad for Nigeria to leap-frog from a resource- dependent to a knowledge-based economy. Nigeria can be transformed into a major ICT hub where knowledge, technology and innovation are used as tools to not only drive wealth creation and empower citizens of the country, but also deployed to provide security, promote efficiency and national competitiveness for sustainable socio-economic development,” she said.

While also admitting that Nigeria, currently, is not where it should be technology-wise even as broadband penetration is still very low in the country compared to other African countries, Johnson assured that working closely with the NCC, all impediments or obstacles to achieving increased broadband penetration would be surmounted. “We will look at how we can develop a broadband policy or broadband strategy that addresses the fact that we don’t have fibre optics to the semi-urban and the rural areas; whether it’s going to be fibre optics or satellite or microwave, we are in the process of thinking through that and looking at the challenges we have and how to overcome these challenges,” she said.
Acknowledging the fact that ICT is both a tool for economic development as well as social development, the Minister said going forward, four areas remain priority for the Ministry and these include:  Adopting ICT for financial inclusion, agriculture, education and health.

“Using ICT to increase productivity in agriculture, increase access of every Nigerian to health services, financial inclusion to ensure more people have bank accounts and can actually do online transactions, and of course access to health. One of the things a WHO gentleman showed us was a recent survey in terms of e-Health readiness that was done for Nigeria.”

“When you look at nurses per capita, doctors per capita, one of the lowest in the world, it shows you that while we are waiting to see the number of doctors we need we can actually use the few doctors we have through technology – telepresence, telemedicine and all those kind of things. So, ICT is right at the centre of making all these things available to every single Nigerian as opposed to the things being available to those in the urban area. ICT is actually central to development,” she said.

While unveiling the country’s broadband plans at ITU World 2011 in Geneva, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, was quick to note that the country has adopted an 'open access' model for the deployment of broadband across the country, and called for the full participation of the international community.
Juwah said the adoption of this model is to forestall challenges posed by operational issues and the complexities that may arise from roles of agencies, including urban and regional administrative set-ups, which impinge on the rights of way of facility deployments.
"The NCC has decided to explore the 'open access' model for the effective deployment of a national fibre network that will ensure an even platform and playing field for retail service providers and enhance the achievement of the nation's e-economy goals," he said.
He said a major attraction is that the government will offer subsidies to enable broadband services to the under-served and un-served areas where it may not be economically-viable to deploy fibre, adding that the strategy will also ensure investors make decent profit.
Explaining it further, Juwah said in using this model, the plan is to unbundle the broadband market structure into three layers namely: the passive infrastructure layer, the active infrastructure layer, and the retail service layer in an arrangement which will determine the roles to be played by the various types of services providers in the broadband market. "To ensure vibrancy of the market and prevent dominance, no company will be allowed to play in more than two of the service layers," he said.
Juwah said the implementation of this model will bridge the gap in broadband deployment, eliminate last mile issues, reduce price of bandwidth for end users and unlock the market for massive broadband usage in Nigeria.

According to him, during implementation, the commission would issue licences in the passive and active layers respectively while price caps will be implemented in these layers using cost-based pricing. He stressed that the nation's expectations by 2015 is to achieve 12 per cent broadband penetration, 80 per cent mobile penetration, two per cent fixed line growth, 34 per cent Internet growth and 12 per cent Personal Computer (PC) penetration.

As interesting as these sound, the key issue is for the regulators to pursue the implementation to logical conclusion. It is one thing to plan and it is another thing to carry out that which has been planned. As Nigerians navigate into the New Year, the expectation is that they begin to see the impacts of all these plans and roadmaps translating into general improvements in the nation’s ICT landscape.

Taking Action on Broadband
Countries all over the world has identified the crucial role broadband availability plays in economic advancement and this explains the huge investments most of them have made in developing broadband in the last few years. In the United States alone for instance, telecommunications and cable television companies invested more than USD 97.7 billion in broadband deployment between 2004 and 2010. Since 2009, Chinese companies have invested USD 7.44 billion in broadband, while Malaysian operators have invested USD 1.6 billion, and there are many more examples.
Several developed countries are promoting broadband as part of their economic recovery plans, both to ensure the deployment of these high-cost networks and to stimulate employment.

Besides private investments, governments of these countries have also made huge investments in ensuring broadband availability across their states. US had launched a $7.2 billion Broadband Stimulus program focused on providing service to unserved and underserved areas. Similarly in Germany, the government came up with a national broadband Strategy with the objective of having nationwide broadband access nationwide (1Mbits/s) not later than 2010 and providing 75 per cent of German households access to a broadband connection of at least, 50 Mbits/s by 2014. This came with an estimated investment of EUR 36 billion.

Elsewhere in Sweden, in order to promote broadband, the government provided financial incentives running into EUR 864 million to municipalities to fund two third (2/3) of total next generation networks (NGN). Portugal also announced EUR 800 million credit line for the roll-out of a next-generation network. And this was the first step in a EUR 2.1 billion to boost the country’s economy.
New Zealand has also released USD 1.03 billion to boost fibre in the country over the next five years. In Canada, the government came up with four programmes to promote broadband resulting in investment of CAN300 million.

Fundamentally, these are practical examples for Nigeria to follow in the drive for broadband going forward. Suffice it to say that the year 2011 was like the awakening period to the reality that the country can actually advance her economy with broadband availability. Hence the regulators and government agencies began to make some moves.
Although there had been heavy investments by some private operators to bring fibre optic cables into the country, these have not translated into broadband experience for Nigerians as the government has yet to come out with a concrete national broadband policy that would stimulate growth and further investments. Again, lack of a national backbone infrastructure has been an impediment for the existing cable operators to spread across the country.
In the last year, a lot have been said on plans for broadband by both the NCC and the Ministry of Communications Technology, the bottom line is that these promises and strategies are translated into actions in the New Year. Concrete actions are expected from the government regarding investment in broadband as done by developed countries who have achieved success with broadband. As private operators are committing huge funds into bringing fibre optic cables, it is also imperative for the government to provide incentives which would encourage them to take the service to the rural, which are less profitable for them. But most importantly is the need for the government to come up with a national broadband policy.

What should be in a National Broadband Plan, by ITU

A national broadband plan is as much a social contract as a plan of action to develop the industry base.
 
It can be understood as bringing about a stronger foundation for effective governance, private investment and more active citizenship, leading to a desirable social and economic future* his article examines the many considerations which go into the formulation of a national broadband plan.

Main characteristics
A broadband plan needs to be forward looking with a detailed outlook of say, five years, which is not too long that technology solutions might have radically changed, but which covers a longer time frame than electoral cycles.
A national broadband plan should become a permanent fixture of economic development and the embodiment of a shared vision. The plan should be resilient to the checks and balances brought about by politics. It needs to be endorsed by all policy-makers at the time of conception. The respective roles of public and private sector participation, and the potential for partnerships, are all important.
Generally, the private sector should assume primary responsibility for investing in the development of broadband. But this may not always be the best solution, and a central role for the public sector may be needed, at least for a temporary period. Addressing market failure and the need for intervention with universal service objectives will remain an important role for government.
As an aggregating anchor tenant, governments can contribute to demand through e‑services for health, education, public administration, public safety, and the establishment of expertise centres to spread broadband expertise and knowledge. Demand aggregation through the offering of government services online and capacity building, or training through community centres, are particularly important for developing countries, as can be gleaned from the Dominican Republic.

Addressing goals and targets
Governments need to itemize the different goals which can be achieved through a national broadband plan. Such goals may include: universal access and associated guarantees; incentivizing competition and innovation through policies and regulation; and the creation of new industries, exports and jobs.
The plan also needs to identify realistic targets. Broadband targets should be transparent and amenable to market and social analysis, economically justified by a cost-benefit analysis, and unrelated to political cycles. Broadband infrastructure should be seen as a long-term undertaking.
Targets should be sound, realistic and reasonable, taking into account a country’s national circumstances. Targets can be based on percentage penetration levels, as in many developed and developing countries, or on speeds representing the boundaries of technologies which can be reasonably afforded, a combination of both these objectives, or — most likely — a tiered approach which takes into account geographic factors and market supply responses.
Studies are required to estimate the level of demand at determined prices that are attractive to the population. Following this, an estimate of the minimum level of investment to satisfy this demand can be made, together with estimates of the potential rates of return for investors and operators.
In the case of developing countries, and especially in rural areas, there are barriers to obtaining reliable demand estimates. The difficulties and costs of obtaining primary service data, and the scarcity of historic traffic data can make this problematic.
To overcome these obstacles, some regulators, for example in Peru and the Dominican Republic, use a practical approach which involves superimposing a known working example of rural telecommunications and Internet usage onto the demographic distribution of all rural communities throughout the country. Also of great value to developing countries are the case studies of other developing countries, which may have already moved ahead in developing broadband. Both of these tools can make up for a lack of historical traffic and service data for econometric analysis.

Industry structure and regulatory measures to stimulate the market
The structure of the telecommunications industry is still generally asymmetric, with a strong incumbent matched up against new entrants to the business. The essence of the regulatory challenge is to introduce competitive dynamics into the market, because the instinct of competitors in a healthy market is to grow the business, to increase vertical integration in order not to limit diversity, to continuously innovate, and to maintain investment as technologies and network solutions mature. A strong competitive environment ensures that market forces work to achieve these outcomes, and the benefits which accrue to consumers are a genuine choice in price, quality and range of service.
In many countries, the tools for regulation of access, interconnection and market behaviour have been introduced, and given to an independent regulator to administer, often through schemes of negotiation or arbitration and lighter regulatory requirements such as codes and standards.
However, given the legacy of services being provided as a natural monopoly, many preliminary efforts to regulate for a competitive market have foundered, resulting in market failure or otherwise disappointing achievements. A number of incumbents have applied their creative talents to the protection of their historic position and purposely avoided significant new investment, which in itself might benefit new entrants.
As a result, some countries have resorted to operational or structural separation of the incumbent in order to reset the industry framework. This has occurred notably in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia, where there has been a determined policy choice to augment the regulatory structure. The stick has replaced the carrot — with potential denial of spectrum access, or a threat to future partnership participation in broadband network developments.
A recent lesson is that the regulation of access, interconnection and market behaviour in itself needs to have incentives built in to encourage movement up the value chain by new entrants. And entrants need to acquire capital assets progressively as they achieve customers and revenue growth.

Models for financing broadband infrastructure
The different models of financing the implementation of broadband infrastructure are influenced by legacy infrastructure and this determines the extent of direct government involvement. Ultimately, the primary funding for broadband should be privately based, but many markets are not sufficiently developed to offer sound financial investment opportunities.
Two routes are available to government — direct entry as a service provider and later privatization, or stimulation of the market and taking a share of the risk through partnership arrangements.
Where competition exists between vertically-integrated operators that manage their own network infrastructure and have sufficient stand-alone capacity for investment and innovation, the role of government and the regulator is limited to facilitation of fair market competition and behaviour, and the timely and prudent access to public resources such as spectrum and property rights of way. Regulators have a responsibility to encourage infrastructure sharing among competitors (for example, backbone and towers). This alleviates cost pressures, especially where a mix of broadband infrastructure is not sustainable.
Where private investment is reluctant to enter the market, the government can step in as risk taker and enter into public-private partnerships. These can be contracts with an incumbent or with new entrants, and in effect operate as a temporary wholesale monopoly — though based upon open access principles which differ from the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) monopoly — until competition is better established.
An inventive partnership contract devised in New Zealand grants the government an initial 100 per cent stake, which is then progressively bought out by the commercial partner as uptake occurs. Capital is returned to the government through this process, and this can then be reinvested in ultra-fast broadband networks. This arrangement essentially operates as a rotating line of credit.
Many developing countries now impose a universal service levy, and this accumulated resource might be applied in the future to bring broadband to underserved and unserved areas under contractual partnership with government.

The need for cross-sectoral considerations
In promoting broadband adoption, demand-side policies might involve tax incentives, the development of various e‑government services, an enabling environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, export incentives, and the development of human capacity and resources.
This calls for an overarching strategy involving the consideration of cross-sectoral measures, and education of the broad base of society and industry in order to enjoy fully the benefits which broadband offers.
In general, it is appropriate for developing countries to consider mobile and wireless broadband as a way of addressing the digital divide. There appears to be a continuous increase in wireless broadband services in developing countries, with the deployment of 3G-enabled handsets and devices.
Some developed countries already have strong inter-platform competition between cable-based Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) systems, fibre-optic systems, and wireless systems evolving to the fourth generation (4G) with Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMAX. This forms a firm foundation for healthy competition in the marketplace. Another observation is that while regulatory attempts in those countries have been biased towards service-based competition, they have had less impact (in fact a deceleration of investment) on developing a competitive market than the inherent facilities-based competition already in existence in their markets.
In other developed countries, where optical fibre (for FTTx and backbone needs) is seen as the wholesale platform for future growth of competition, there is nevertheless an acknowledgement that wireless, satellite and cable-based technologies might need to serve at least part of the market, which market demand should be left to determine.
This points to the need for policy-makers and regulators to maintain a neutral stance on the application of technology. It is better not to pick a single technology national champion to implement broadband because of the wide skills required to cover all technologies.
In the long run, the most mature markets, for which consumers will most benefit, are those that enable inter-platform competition, and multiple network providers using separate technologies. In countries where inter-platform competition has emerged, such as in the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, and to a certain extent the United States, there has been no noticeable market failure with regard to the development of broadband.

Where to Start
A national broadband plan is as much a social contract as a plan of action to develop the industry base. It can be understood as bringing about a stronger foundation for effective governance, private investment and more active citizenship, leading to a desirable social and economic future.
There is no total blueprint for best practice, but a systematic approach using a decision tree will hep to ensure that all relevant factors are considered. Learning from other experiences at each level of decision making is possible. This article may assist with some pointers of where to look when tailoring the cloth to suit a particular set of national circumstances — for both developed and developing countries.

National Broadband Plans from Select Countries

Kenya

The Kenyan Government recognized the role of ICTs in the social and economic development of the nation and promulgated a national ICT Policy based on the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation  from 2003. The policy is based on four guiding principles: infrastructure development, human resource development, stakeholder participation and appropriate policy and regulatory framework.
The policy set goals to create a comprehensive policy, legal and regulatory framework to: Support ICT development, investment and application; Promote competition in the industry where appropriate; and Ensure affordability and access to ICT nationally;
Examples of policy objectives include: Providing all primary schools with affordable internet access by the year 2015; and all secondary schools and tertiary institutions to have affordable internet access by the year 2010; Encouraging Kenyans to participate in the sector through equity ownership.

Consequently, any firm licensed to provide telecommunication services is required to have at least 30 percent Kenyan equity ownership. Needless to say, Kenya is already reaping benefits as a destination for new ICT investments in Africa today and is being billed as Africa’s Silicon Savana. For example, within 3 days of  Seacom launching in 2009, Kenya reported an increase in Internet speeds, Safaricom reported a 200 per cent increase in data traffic and international bandwidth supply increased by 700 per cent. 

When Google was seeking to open a head office for sub-Saharan Africa, it chose
Nairobi with one of the few reasons cited being that the Government has adopted the
Internet as few African nations have. Same for head office of Airtel Africa and the story goes on.

South Korea

Korea is another classic example of a country that pulled itself up  from poverty in the mid-1950s to  a booming economy based on heavy industry and manufacturing in the 1970s and 1980s, then a pioneer of the information society in the 1990s and 2000s and has  moved from being a middle- to high-income country.  The  exceptional success in developing broadband, and ICT generally there is also  based on  a mix of highly competitive private-led markets and government leadership, use, support, and
regulation.The country has seen a transformation from less than 1 Internet user per 100 inhabitants in 1995 to one of the world‘s most highly penetrated broadband markets. By June 2009 fixed broadband penetration was 32 percent, and market penetration of 3G services was 77 subscribers per 100 inhabitants and the highest broadband penetration in the world.

In February 2009, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced plans to upgrade the national network to offer 1 Gbit/s service by 2012. Currently, Koreans can get speeds up to 100 Mbit/s. The plan will cost 34.1 trillion won (USD $24.6 billion) over the next five years.

The central government is expected to put up 1.3 trillion won, with the remainder coming from private telecom operators. The project is also expected to create more than 120,000 jobs - a win for the Korean economy. In November 2006, the government had announced it would invest 26.6 trillion won (US$28.3 billion) to upgrade networks—including fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), optical LAN and hyper fiber co-axial cable—in the country over the next four years. The government aims to upgrade a total of 20 million subscriber lines—10 million lines for fixed and wireless services each. The government is expecting industry to contribute funds toward the national upgrading project.

The decision to focus on broadband began in the mid-1990s and intensified after South Korea's economy was crippled by the collapse of the Asian financial markets in 1997, when policy makers targeted technology as a key sector for restoring the country's economic health.
Korean regulators set a path for the industry with well-publicized national goals. All big office and apartment buildings would be given a fiber connection by 1997. By 2000, 30 percent of households would have broadband access through DSL or cable lines. By 2005, more than 80 percent of households would have access to fast connections of 20 Mbit/s or more—about the rate needed for high-definition television.
Most of the country's consumers were already served by the dominant carrier Korea Telecom, but the government encouraged competitors with a low-interest loan program for companies that built their own broadband facilities. The program offered $77 million in two years alone, with a particular focus on rural areas. The government offered other incentives for Korea Telecom. Once a state-owned monopoly, the company began the transition to private hands in 1993. But the government, which retained some shares until 2002, allowed the process to become final only on the condition that Korea Telecom bring broadband to all the villages in the country.
The government also offered Internet training for the portion of the population deemed likely to be left behind in the digital age. About 10 million people fell into this category in the first round of the government's initiative, including stay-at-home wives, military personnel, disabled citizens, and even prison inmates. That program was ultimately expanded to anyone who wanted it.

Australia

On 15 September 2009, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, announced fundamental reforms to Australian's telecommunications landscape.
In April 2009, the Australian Government announced that it would establish a new company that will invest up to $43 billion over 8 years to build and operate a wholesale-only, open access National Broadband Network. The new network will provide fiber optic to the home and workplace, supplemented with next generation wireless and satellite technologies to deliver superfast broadband services. The Government plans to sell down its ownership of the company - NBN Co. Ltd. - 5 years after the network is built.
Again in April 2009, the Government released a discussion paper entitled "National Broadband Network: Regulatory Reform for 21st Century Broadband".[54] The paper is based on public comments on the NBN. The paper appears to be similar to an FCC NPRM or NOI. It outlines the method of establishing the NBN and also sketches general regulatory reforms to assist the market in the future. To facilitate fiber build-out, the government will simplify land right of way procedures.
The Australian Government had previously (in 2007) planned to subsidize a privately-operated fibre-to-the-node project. The collapse of capital markets altered that plan.

Canada
Canada was one of the first countries to implement a connectivity agenda geared toward facilitating Internet access to all of its citizens. To this day, Canada remains one of the most connected nations in the world, with the highest broadband connection rate among the G7 countries. However, gaps in access to broadband remain, particularly in rural and remote communities. "The Government is committed to closing the broadband gap in Canada by encouraging the private development of rural broadband infrastructure. Budget 2009 provides $225 million over three years to Industry Canada to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to all currently unserved communities beginning in 2009-10." The budget specifically includes: "Providing $225 million over three years to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to unserved communities." On March 6, 2009, Mr. John Duncan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-status Indians, announced that the Government of Canada will contribute $7.86 million to the First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS) and their partner, the First Nations Technology Council (FNTC) in British Columbia, for the construction and provision of satellite broadband network capacity connecting 21 remote First Nations communities in British Columbia.
In a June 4, 2009 news release, the CRTC endorsed the National Film Board's call for a national digital strategy.

Argentina

The number of Internet users in the country has been estimated at 26 million (2010), of which 5 million, by late 2010, were broadband users (82 per cent of which were residential and 81per cent of which connected at a speed of least 512 kbit/s), and over 1.3 were wireless and satellite users.
Among residential users, 38.3 per cent were located in Buenos Aires Province (including Greater Buenos Aires), 26.0 per cent in the city of Buenos Aires, 8.2 per cent in Córdoba and 7.4 per centin Santa Fe Province. According to a 2010 report by IDC Consulting, Argentina has a rate of 9.3 broadband accounts per 100 inhabitants, only surpassed in the region by Chile, which registered 9.7.

Despite this relatively good national indicator, the penetration of Internet is not the same in all provinces, and some provinces, like Jujuy, have only 0.2 per 100 inhabitants; Formosa Province 0.3; Corrientes Province 0.4; and Tucumán Province.
To reduce this disparity between provinces, in October 2010 the government presented a five-year plan, with an initial inversion of 8,000 million pesos, called Plan Nacional de Telecomunicación "Argentina Conectada" ("Connected Argentina" - National Telecommunications Plan), under command of the state-owned entreprise AR-SAT.
Most of the financing is intended for the acquiring of high-tech material required. The main goal is to expand the broadband to the whole national territory, and to reach, by the year 2015, a coverage of more than 10 million homes with a connection. This is supposed to duplicate the present number of residences which have access to these services, and to quintuple the penetration of optical fiber in the country.

Chile
In October 2008, Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, announced the country's most ambitious telecoms subsidy plan ever, in terms of public investment and area of coverage. The project, which is aimed at boosting SMEs competitiveness in rural areas, provides connectivity to more than three million people in 1,474 rural communities. The development is expected to cost US$100 million, 70 per cent of which will be provided by the government through the Telecoms Development Fund.
Significance: At 30 March 2008, only 0.8 per cent of the households in rural areas in Chile have internet access. Upon completion of the project, internet network coverage will reach from 71.6 per cent of the population to 92.2 per cent, according to the country's telecoms regulator.
In January 2008, Chile announced its 2007-2012 Strategy for Digital Development that will articulate the efforts of the public and private spheres as to new technologies during the next years. The project was prepared by the Committee of Ministers for Digital Development and seeks to provide further impulse to the ICTs in the Trans-Andean country.
The goals on which the Chilean government will place more emphasis are to double the broadband connections to reach 2 million by 2010, to increase SMEs competition, to advance on the digitalization of the public health system, and to implement new technologies in areas deemed key, such as the provisional reform and education.
In June 2009, Chile launched a new portal in which consumers may compare offers of all internet providers.

Colombia

In April 2009, Internet usage has grown to 40 percent of the Colombian population in the last ten years, with internet subscriptions rising at an annual rate of 75 percent. Over 73 percent of internet subscribers use broadband. Despite the growth, Colombia's subscription penetration average remains sixth in Latin America, with a majority of internet subscriptions concentrated in Colombia's three largest cities. To promote information technologies (IT) and telecommunications services in rural areas, Colombia's Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications developed a comprehensive ten-year National IT plan. A USD 750 million public-private Communications Fund administers plan implementation, with 60 percent of funds targeted to the Compartel rural and community development program. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also supports the development of telecommunications networks in rural areas, as well as provides technical assistance to GOC telecommunications authorities.
The percentage of internet users has grown from 1 to 40 percent of the population—or approximately 17 million people—within the last decade. Permanent internet subscribers have also grown at an annual rate of 75 percent in the last five years, although the actual number of subscriptions remains low at 2 million. Colombia's penetration average (the internet subscription to population ratio) is 4.3, ranking it sixth in Latin America behind Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and Brazil. Likewise, 55 percent of subscriptions remain concentrated in the cities of Bogotá, Medellín and Cali.
Colombia has 1.45 million internet subscribers with broadband access—approximately 73 percent of total subscriptions,  DSL (63 percent) and cable (32 percent) dominate the broadband market share, with Wimax (5 percent) a distant third.
In 2009, the Ministry of Communications (MOC) announced a National IT Plan, establishing three main goals to be achieved before 2019: 70 percent of Colombians with internet subscriptions, 100 percent of health and education establishments with internet access, and 100 percent of rural areas with internet access. The MOC plans to achieve these objectives through its flagship community and rural development program Compartel, which is funded by a USD 750 million public-private National Communications Fund. Compartel provides subsidies or investment incentives to establish internet networks and telephony services in Colombia's most rural and impoverished areas. Since 2008, the program has invested USD 421 million in rural networks, benefiting 16,000 rural educational, health and government institutions.
In addition to Compartel, the GOC also supports additional programs in the educational, health, entrepreneurial, competitiveness, online-government and research sectors. Activities in 2008 included the distribution of refurbished computers to educational institutions (USD 86 million), connectivity financing for small and medium enterprises (USD 15 million), conversion of all public institutions to online institutions (USD 70 million), and e-medicine (USD 5 million).
USAID also promotes telecommunications connectivity for underserved and rural populations, as well as education and content to support economic and social development, through its Last Mile Initiative. Major contributors to this public-private alliance are Avantel, Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Polyvision, regional and local governments, and the MOC. Through the program, USG-provided equipment and training will connect 50 municipalities in the departments of Meta, Huila and Magdalena, including 21,000 small businesses and 325,000 institutions such as schools, hospitals, justice houses and local government offices. On the technical side, USAID assisted the MOC with the development of its National Plan and presently advises the CRT on "unbundling the local loop" to increase competition in broadband provision.

Policies Expected to Drive Nigerian ICT Industry in 2012

As interesting as the year 2011 appeared to be in the ICT clime, year 2012 seems to be showing a lot more prospects as a number of policies that would re-define the nation’s ICT landscape have been penned down for implementation in the year. However, how well the implementation would go is also a function of adequate planning and preparedness of the initiators. Moreover, it would also depend on if the government and the regulators would keep to their words.

Mobile Number Portability

The consortium of telcos comprising Interconnect, Saab Grintek, and Telecordia, was announced by NCC as preferred operators for the service after the technical, financial and demo presentations by bidders. The consortium would be responsible for the set up and implementation of Number Portability Clearing House in Nigeria, and provide mobile number portability solution administration in Nigeria within six months of receiving the license with a testing period of two months.

According to NCC, members of the consortium are to execute a tripartite agreement that would indicate their specific responsibilities in the process. NCC, as the regulator, will approve the agreement in line with conditions of the provision of the service in Nigeria. The NCC also mandated the consortium to ensure that local content participation and adequate skills transfer are entrenched in the process during the implementation of the five-year license.

From a statement signed by Mr Ruben Muoka, the regulator’s Head of Media and Public Relations, the consortium is also expected to configure the technical solution for number portability in Nigeria in line with the consultation documents as earlier published by the Commission, and the solution is to be customized to meet the specific process needs, as well as other requirements of the Nigerian network operators.

The ability for mobile phone users to port their phones will be another major step change hoped to deepen competition in Nigeria’s telecoms market with over 90 million active phone connections while the service is planned to be available to fixed line users in the near future.
According to the regulator, it has found it necessary to drive the implementation of Number Portability in Nigeria in order to realize the following objectives: Remove barrier to the free choice of mobile network, by a subscriber; Boost the level of open competition among network operators; Act as stimulus (incentive) for service providers to improve on Quality of Service and consumer satisfaction and Make it easier for new entrants to gain market share.

This is an opportunity Nigerians have been waiting for. Fortunately for the country, many African countries have done this successfully from which Nigeria can borrow from their experience. South Africa, Kenya, Ghana among others have created this opportunity for their telecom consumers, leaving Nigeria behind, despite being the largest telecom market in the continent. Of course, MNP has been in the pipeline for some years now, but the regulator could not proceed because of lack of appropriate subscriber data and with the conclusion of SIM registration exercise in 2011, the regulator has no other excuse for not implementing Number Portability in the year 2012.

Going Cashless
Beginning this month, Nigeria launches into full e-payment system with the pilot scheme of the new Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy taking off in Lagos. This again is expected to open a new horizon in the Nigeria ICT industry as telecom operators, financial institutions and other stakeholders in the system brace up for the task ahead.
A cashless economy or an e-payment system is a situation where there is little or very low cash flow in a given society, thus every other purchases and transactions will be made by electronic channels, examples of which are direct debit, electronic funds transfer, mobile payments, multi-functional ATMs, internet banking and a significant increase in point of sale (POS) penetration and usage. In other words, it simply refers to the widespread application of computer technology in the financial system. Payments under this new system will range from a list of options such as cheques, wire transfers, debit and credit cards, online transactions, and mobile banking. The advantages of a cashless society are enormous; from regulating, controlling, and securing the financial system of any economy.

While the CBN is spearheading the initiative as a part of monetary policies to drive economic growth, the NCC has expressed its readiness to provide the telecommunications infrastructures required. Highlighting the efforts of the Commission in this regard, Mrs. Lolia Emakpore, Director Policy, Competition and International Affairs, NCC, said,” from policy perspective, we are trying to put in place policies that will ensure network reliability and ensuring that consumers do not pay unreasonable cost to be able to carry out their transactions. There is also need to ensure that the equipments that are going to be used for the process has interoperability and NCC will have to ensure approval of necessary equipments that will come in. The Commission is also prepared to provide the short codes that will be required for this.”
                                                       
According to her, the Commission is concerned with the network integrity interoperability and interconnectivity issues, robustness and redundancies of all the networks.  “In partnership with CBN, we are assuring that we will work with the operators to ensure that the necessary requirements for a reliable network are provided by the mobile service providers. The mobile operators have also indicated themselves that they are ready to support this. Even as we speak, they are upgrading their networks to be able to support cashless economy because they realise the need for real time transactions,” she said.

With this new system, Nigeria’s ICT industry is bound to witness landmark change with the use of cards and Point of Sales (POS) Terminals becoming more ubiquitous. Again, this would significantly engender more investment in the ICT sector as many applications would be required to run the system efficiently.

Suffice it to say that in going cashless, Nigeria is coming behind countries like Kenya, South Africa and Ghana, who are well advanced in e-payment system. Kenya, for instance, has become a reference point for mobile payment success across Africa because of its M-Pesa model, which is working effectively and efficiently. Obviously, it would be a big shame if Nigeria falter with its ‘cashless society’ experiment and this is why it is imperative for the CBN, NCC and other stakeholders to be adequately prepared before launching into the system nation-wide.

Transition to Digital Broadcasting

Nigeria may record another giant stride in broadcasting in the year 2012 going by its self-imposed target of June 17, 2012 as the change-over date to digital broadcasting transmission in the country. Industry regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), has claimed that cable and Direct-to-Home (“DTH”) operators in the country are already transmitting digital signals. In addition, the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, has publicly announced the commitment of the government to speed-up the transition process.
Speaking at the 2011 ITU Telecom Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa, disclosed that ahead of the June 17, 2012 switch-over date, all  satellite and cable broadcast transmissions in the country have been fully digitized.
Bolarinwa said Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) has commenced fully in five major cities in Nigeria which include Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Kano, adding that the country currently have over 345 broadcast stations cutting across all tiers, Public Service, Commercial and Community, while the Commission had effectively ensured that these stations were given  positive direction, thereby ensuring quality broadcasting for the people.

However, in spite of the latest pronouncements, NBC’s  supposed pro-activeness and the broad industry acceptance of the need to make the digital move, doubts persist among stakeholders as to the ability of the government to achieve its aggressive digitalisation ambitions. Many still hold the view that the government is under-estimating the huge complexities to be faced in implementing the migration and probably needs to first focus on making the regulator more efficient.
Again, the current level of awareness among the Nigerian populace and lack of any efforts towards consumer hardware replacement is seen as smack of preparedness on the regulator’s part. Of course, with digital broadcasting, new television sets and set-top boxes would be required by consumers to receive digital transmissions; this introduces an additional seemingly unaffordable cost item to many households.
 
On the awareness side, there are concerns that the majority of Nigerians are completely oblivious of the impending digital transition. All these raise doubts about the ability to meet the set deadline of June 2012.
The transition from analogue to digital broadcasting can create great opportunities for the provision of ICT applications and multimedia services including the higher quality of video and interactivity. It will also contribute to the efficient use of spectrum and pave the way for “digital dividend”, whereby the released spectrum can be used for promoting wireless broadband communications.

Considering its importance, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) released guidelines for nation members to follow in the transition process, noting that a great number of political, social, economic and technological issues. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a well defined roadmap covering national strategies and key decisions.
The Union in the guideline notes that independent of national variations, experience has shown that it is essential to meet a number of conditions to achieve a successful transition to digital broadcasting, which include: Strong leadership from government; Firm decision that sets the analogue TV switch-off date; Close cooperation between Regulator and market parties; Clear and timely regulatory framework (including decisions on the “Digital Dividend”); and Adequate information and assistance to viewers.

‘Broadband is Our Priority Agenda for 2012’
In its capacity as the telecom industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been at the forefront of charting the course for the industry’s growth. In this interview with SAMSON AKINTARO, the new Director of Public Affairs for the Commission, MR. TONY OJOBO, takes a look at the ICT industry in 2011 from the regulatory perspective and gives insights into the regulator’s plans for 2012. Excerpts:

Year 2011 is just a few days left; can you give us an assessment of the Nigerian ICT industry for the year and what the Commission has as plans for 2012?
I think the ICT industry in 2011 has done quite well. You know all the issues that were on the front burner in the course of the year. For us at NCC, even with the coming of the new Chief executive Dr. Juwah, he has enunciated a five-point agenda as the area of focus for the commission and those are some of the areas that the commission has tried to focus on. Of course, NCC is now giving verve to the compliance monitoring activities as well as enforcement. Over the past ten years of the telecoms revolutions, the commission has issued licenses to a number of service providers and all of those licenses have their terms and conditions including obligations that the service providers have both to the regulator and to the consumers. Now, we have licensed a number of service providers in different areas, that is the networks and the service providers like the ISPs etc. So, we have gotten to the point where we need to critically evaluate the operations of these service providers licensed to see if they are meeting up with the terms and conditions of our licenses. Apart from the licensing conditions itself we also have guidelines especially for the networks like guidelines for the quality of service for instance, with a certain threshold that we have set as well as bench marks which must be met.

You are aware that recently the commission had given instructions to service providers of our intention to issue directions to them if certain services conditions are not met. That ended on the 30th of November and what the commission is doing now is analyzing the data that was collected from the field, with a view to ascertaining if these providers have actually met the service quality or whether they should be sanctioned. It is the outcome of that analyses that will determine whether people should be sanctioned or if they have met the service quality threshold. In that area of enforcement, these are things that we are trying to do. Even the intention to issue direction’ statement that came out lately is also part of compliance monitoring and enforcement.

We have guidelines that have to be met and we have to enforce the standard that we have set for those providers to meet. So, in that area, we have done quite a bit. In the area of broadband, the CEO, Dr Juwah has actually at a number of fora talked about our broadband officially. The choice that the commission is making is adopting the open access model for obvious reason because that is the model that will ensure that we don’t have monopoly but will enable everybody have access and also ensure that the right kind of service quality is given to our people. We have seen in other parts of the world where people have adopted the open access model and it kind of gives everybody level plain field and once you have a level plain field you can ensure that the competition will be fair and there wouldn’t be any undue advantage taken by any network who may want to engage in sovereignty quantity behaviours.

So, that model is the one that is being adopted and of course the broadband plan is clear, the commission has already appointed some consultants who will work with the commission and the stakeholders in coming up with the appropriate way to go with the broad band plan. Even at the ministry level, they have also been making statement with regards to the issue of policy so, there is a commitment at the point of government because I believe there is a committee that is already looking at the issue of policy of broadband and quite a number of things. But specifically for us at the commission here, there is commitment and there is no going back on this because we have gotten to this level where broadband is the next revolution that Nigerians should be expecting. With the kind of upsurge in the use of data communications in Nigeria today and of course with the inherent low speed of downloads and also low speed  of some applications you find out that broadband is what will take us to the next stage. Of course, with all of the e-applications that are available now in other parts of the world, we cannot be talking about things like e-commerce, e-education, e-agriculture and all the other’ Es’ without broadband because one, the huge data that will have to go from one point to another will need to have rugged broadband program that can drive up all of that even talking about the cashless society, all of that will need to depend on broadband.

The kind of things that happen is that sometimes people go to ATM and they said there is no service.  Imagine a case where there is an emergency and it is a weekend and somebody need to quickly go to ATM to get some money and it is not working because of the issues of network. But with a broadband in place you find out that not only will you have a kind of pervasive service but also quality in terms of speed and access. That is the area also that has sufficiently engaged the commission. Sometime this year, the commission visited some countries where we think that broadband is doing very well, example is Singapore. We saw the process where you have the three layers even as the EVC has mentioned. You have the level where you have the ‘dark fibre, where you have the infrastructure provider then the other level where you will have the providers who will just probably light up the fibre and provide service to the top players which s the service providers themselves.

With those kinds of layers you find out that everybody being on their beats and doing what they are supposed to do and focusing on it, I think it will help in the process. We have looked at that area and I believe that in the coming year the commission will be coming out with clear roadmap and also the next steps for the year 2012. But of course, there is a silver lining in the sky. Another thing also that has happened in the course of the year is the move towards Mobile Number Portability. I guess you are aware that a company has been appointed a consortium of ICM, Saab Grintek and Telecordia. These are companies that are quite reputable in the area of number portability around the world. As soon as they are issued the license which from what the Chief Executive has said, may be before the end of the year.

Then it will take about seven months for them to put in place infrastructure which will be required to rollout this broadband service. In other words, may be seven months from January, I am sure will now be talking about rollout of number portability services. That is another major thing that has also happened and as we get into the next year it will also happen for the next year going forward. Another major thing that has happen of course you know, is the SIM card registration which as we speak, quite a number of Nigerians have registered .There has been this window that has been provided during this period of harmonization of data as you as aware, NCC registered through our agents and service providers also registered. All of those data will be harmonized and will be managed eventually by NIMC -Nigerian Identity Management Commission. Now what NCC is doing is clearing out the data to ensure that there is integrity of data and also carrying out the necessary verifications and fine tune the process generally after which it is handed over to NIMC.

Next year, what will happen is that people who didn’t register, that is, after the harmonization process has been completed, will not be able to make calls. Then it has become a law that you have to register before you can make calls on a network then and registration will be continuous for people who are now taking in new SIMs because you will have people who will hop in and out of the services and those need to be registered appropriately.

Other things that have happened in the course of the year, NCC have actually been providing in the area of corporate social responsibility; computers and Laptops to tertiary institutions under what is called the Digital awareness programme. It is a programme where the commission provides at least twenty computers for secondary schools with an internet access.
What that does is that the schools are able to register their students for WAEC and JAMB. And also, according to the way they are planned, it takes them through ICT and computer appreciation programmes. Teachers also trained as the students are trained then they continue to train the students.

That has been provided to about 148 secondary schools in the country as we speak today and the same thing has also happened with the Universities, college of educations and the polytechnics. We have provided them Laptops and wireless internet cloud. This year alone, about 38 tertiary institutions are getting wireless internet cloud provided. It is to enable the students have access to the internet as part of our mandate of facilitating access. We know that some of our providers have done a few things but they can do more, we have observed that there is gap that is why NCC has come in as part of what has been provided for us in the Act as the facilitators of access to do that for educational institutions especially and it is continuous.

Besides, you are aware that we have the Digital Bridge institute which is like an arm of NCC that has continued to build capacity for the industry. There was a time in the industry that manpower was a problem for the industry especially in the technical area but I think that gap is being bridge right now. So, those are some of the thing that has happened in the course of the year.

Looking at the efforts NCC has put in place in terms of ensuring compliance with quality of service in 2011, can we say that come 2012 there will be improved quality of service?
Absolutely, there will be improvement in the quality of service because with the new custom that we are giving to compliances monitoring and enforcement, I don’t think there is any service provider that wants to be sanctioned because sanction is not good for the service provider and is not good for the industry.
 It has implication and nobody will want to be sanctioned and the only way not to be sanctioned is to make sure continuously that the guidelines and benchmarks that the commission has set is met, that is the responsibility of the service providers. The commission also has the responsibility to ensure that quality of service provided to the consumers is good. So, yes, I will say looking into next year the quality of service will be certainly based on the actions we are taking now. Also, the instructions we have given to the service providers has gingered them into trying to do a few things on their networks, quality of service will definitely and positively be much better in 2012.

In 2011 Nigeria celebrated ten years of telecom revolution, in another ten years where do you see Nigeria telecom sector?
We will now be talking about broadband revolution. Certainly, we will now look back ten years to today and see how broadband has changed the way we live just as how voice communications has changed the way we live in Nigeria today, broadband is even going to much more change the way we live both in of corporate and individual lives. There are a lot of things people will be able to do from the comfort of their homes. It will make live a lot easier for people, a lot of transactions that people go physically today to do, I see in ten years time, the ICT awareness and usage will be such that people will now be able to do a lot of things from the comfort of their homes and you can even have people who work from their homes just like you have it in the developed world today. People who have their mobile office everywhere they go, it is a virtual office as it were.
We are going to have these virtual offices where people will not have to invest so much in terms physical structure but where the investments will be in terms of what they have in their in their systems because that is the office.
When you find out that the kind of information you have in the laptop will worth much than even buildings that is full of files and all manners of things. And wherever he is going, it goes with him, for instance, if he is going out of the country, he goes with his office or if he is going from Lagos to Abuja, he is going with his office and wherever he is, he can operate from there and he can also have virtual conferences and meetings with his staff who may not be in any physical location but they all can see each other. That is the kind of things that we may see in ten years from now or it may not even be up to ten years before we begin to see all these.

Any word for Nigerian subscribers?
I want to say that NCC will continue to be alive to its responsibility in terms of ensuring that consumers in Nigeria get quality service and we want to make sure that we keep monitoring the networks to continue ensuring that good quality of service is provided.
The areas of challenges that have been identified as at today especially the once that require our own actions, the commission will see how it can address them. But certainly, the quality of service will be much more than it is this year.