Post-ULR forum gathers momentum

AS the momentum gathers for the second Stakeholders’ Forum scheduled to hold in Lagos to examine the operations of the Unified Licensing Regime (ULR) so far, the Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Frank Nweke, Jnr, would be the centre of attention in the quest for stakeholders to get relevant feedback.

The organisers said that in the bid to sustain the six-year-old revolution in the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) that participations are expected to x-ray potential opportunities to exploit.

It would be recalled that at the end of the five-year exclusivity period granted the Digital Mobile Licensees otherwise known as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM operators, the federal government introduced the Unified Licensing Regime in 2006, which further paved the way for assuming level playing group for most operators, enabling them to offer all ICT services.

Even as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had equally granted eight Unified Licensees till date.

Also, the organisers of the second Stakeholders’ Forum said the event slated for April 24 in Lagos, with the theme, ‘Unified Licensing Regime – New Phase of Nigeria’s Telecom Revolution: the prospects, possibilities and realities,” would afford some of the operators the freedom to intimate the populace on their various journey so far in deploying these licenses.

Relatively, NCC, would use the platform to highlight the benefits of the unified licensing regime and its expectations from the operators as they move forward.

A press statement made available to Champion Infotel and endorsed by chief host and editor-in-chief, IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang, said that the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, would deliver the keynote at the forum.

Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko, was quoted as saying that the Commission’s resolve to partner with IT & Telecom Digest in the forum, was based on the belief that it would deepen understand of the stakeholders on the regime and telecommunications development in the country in general.

Line-up for the forum as speakers would include dramatic chief executive of Starcomms Limited, Mr. Maher Qubain and his counterpart at Prestel Cable and Satellite, Mr. Anthony Tosan among others, even as more speakers are expected from the Association of License Telephone Operators and the GSM Consultative Forum.

Winners of the Unified Licence include Starcomms, Intercellular, Prestel, Danjay Telecom and MTN Nigeria and Multilinks.

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