ATCON, NIG back Broadband summit 2010

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) have given support to the forthcoming Broadband Stakeholders Summit, due to hold next month in Lagos.

In a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, weekend in Lagos, the chief executive, e-Business Life Communication Limited, Mrs. Ufuoma ‘Daro, the organizers, said the theme would focus on “Broadband Revolution: Harnessing Broadband for National Development,” and has been scheduled to hold on Tuesday, February 09, 2010.

She quoted the National President of ATCON, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, as stating in a letter to the organizers of the summit, that ATCON was delighted to endorse the summit as the topic is apt and will “give us an avenue to deliberate and prepare to systematically and gainfully channel and effectively utilize the expected broadband capacity by the middle of the year 2010 as well as Nigeria’s digital harvest in Year 2015.”

The letter entitled “Endorsement of One-day Stakeholders’ Summit on Broadband Fibre Optics,” Ekuwem noted that the telecoms outlook for the Year 2010 clearly indicates the availability of capacity in large quantum during the second half of the year.

“The question then is: what do we do with the expected bandwidth? How do we utilize these broadband to automate processes of national economic, social and political lives of our compatriot?”

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the association, he said, has decided to collaborate with e-BusinessLife Communication Limited as the summit will enable us answer some of these questions.

In the same vein, the Nigeria Internet Group in its own letter signed by its National President, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said the future outlook of broadband infrastructure deployment in Nigeria looks good with the level of investment by operators, just as he stressed that if the right environment is created the nation will benefit a great deal from these developments.

“It is our opinion that the stakeholders’ summit proposed by e-Business Life Magazine will help us collectively look at ways of tapping into the great opportunities that the expected massive rollout of broadband in 2010 will achieve and also look at ways to overcome possible challenges,” he said.

In her comment, “Broadband Revolution: Harnessing Broadband for National Development,” Mrs. ‘Daro noted that while it is no longer news that Nigerian telecommunications sector is adjudged to be the fastest growing in Africa; this is only in the area of voice as it is not yet Uhuru in the area of data.

She recalled the report of AfricaNext Investment Research, which had earlier disclosed that Africa’s broadband market will grow more than fourfold in five years from 2.7 million in 2007 to 12.7 million.


This prediction, she pointed out is already reflected in recent developments in the country, which are expected to bring about a revolution in broadband during the course of the year 2010.

“Some of these developments according to her, includes the advent of Glo 1, which is expected to cater for long term bandwidth requirements for voice and data transmission in the West Africa sub region; Main One Cable, which is expected to berth in June 2010.”

Other efforts, she said, included the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Wire Nigeria Project (WIN) as well as the already existing though not stable SAT-3, which is expected to become more efficient and effective once it gets a better manager. It is expected that these developments will boost the Nigerian broadband space remarkably in the year 2010.

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