Wireless’ll reduce bandwidth cost – Ekuwem

...Tasks PHCN on ICT

Remmy Nweke

PRESIDENT, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, has said that deployment of wireless ubiquitous broadband access, embedded in WiMax and WiFi, would reduce the cost of bandwidth.

Just as he said that to boost the penetration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the renamed national electricity power generating organisation, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), has a key role to play.

Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is the popular term for a high-frequency Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, while Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) is known as industry term for a long-range wireless networking standard with potential to deliver high-speed Internet data rates.

Speaking at a one-day seminar organised by the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) in Lagos, in a paper titled “The Future and Fusion of WiFi and WiMax in the Unified Licensing Regime.”

Dr. Ekuwem, who also is the chief executive, Teledom Group, said that in a knowledge-based economy, data and information make up the factor of production.

In order to keep the pace, ease and speed of access to relevant knowledge and translation of same into production, “gives one a competitive advantage in any field of human endeavour,” he said.
Stressing on what he called, “simultaneous broadband bombardment of the human senses, there is need for continuous productivity via ubiquitous broadband access.”

He emphasised that emancipation of WiFi and WiMax, would drastically reduce the cost of bandwidth, moreso in developing countries like Nigeria.

According to him, industry reports showed that by 2008 estimated 50 per cent of household will have cable-based broadband access globally.

“There is a huge opportunity for WiMax to fill the gap,” he said.

Pointing out that wireless is the alternative to the deployment of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable and leased line services.

This opportunity, Dr. Ekuwem said, would avail more potential to mobile telephony investors, especially with WiMax ability to support transmission speeds at over 70 Mega bits per seconds (Mbps).

Explaining further, he said, at the NIG seminar with theme, “Unified Licensing and Internet Service,” that both WiFi and WiMax would not become obsolete in the near future when new technologies emerge.

He traced WiMax origin to the creation by Alvarion and Intel in April 2002, with lots of potentials for wireless digital communication systems.

Its standard of International Electrical Electronics Engineers (IEEE) resolution 802.16 is defined in alignment with WiMax forum and is intended for Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs).

This technology, he said, could be deployed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in both licensed and unlicensed frequencies, even with more bandwidth and higher data rates over long distances, among others.

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