Arising from its quarterly meeting, the
Broadband Council has urged the accelerated implementation of the National
Broadband Plan (NBP) in Nigeria, reports DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews.
The Broadband Council which met penultimate
Tuesday in Abuja and chaired by the Minister of Communication Technology, Dr (Mrs)
Omobola Johnson, DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews reports, took time to evaluate the milestones of the broadband
plan and called for accelerated implementation to enable Nigeria meet with its
project by 2018.
DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews also reports that the Council acknowledged the progress made
on the implementation of the Broadband Plan in the last 18 months, especially
the increased capacity rolled out by telcos and other infrastructure providers
which led to a 2 per cent increase in broadband penetration in 2014.
A press statement made available to DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews by Special Adviser to Mrs. Johnson on Media & Publicity,
Mrs. Efem Nkanga, quoted the Council as noting the successful auction of the
2.3GHz spectrum, licensing of the first two Infracos for metro fibre rollout
and called on successful bidders to quickly rollout to improve the pace of
implementation.
Just as they commended the trial of TV
White Spaces approved by both the NCC and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC),
which they said, was geared at reducing cost of internet access.
She further disclosed that the Council applauded
the Telecoms Operators for their leadership in the area of base station
infrastructure sharing and deployment in addition to being resolute in the extension
of fibre.
The landing points of international
submarine cables beyond Lagos to other coastal states, DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews gathered was a crucial agenda for the Council meeting, even as
they emphasized that additional landing points in the country would not only
reduce vulnerability and risks
associated with a single point of failure but would make it faster and cheaper
to lay terrestrial cable from these points to other parts of the country.
Therefore, DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews reports, the Council urged NCC and the Universal Service
Provision Fund (USPF) to quickly look into the possibilities of providing
financial incentives to accelerate this, though acknowledging some milestones
were missed.
In addition, DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews reports that the Council enjoined Bitflux to accelerate pace of
rollout and NCC should aim at releasing the 2.6 Gega Hertz (GHz) before the end
of first quarter of 2015.
DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews reports that reviewing the
progress on the Ministry’s Smart State initiative aimed at getting concessions
from State governments, focusing specifically on the right of way reductions, standardization on levies and
charges on telco infrastructure, the Council commended CommTech.
DigitalSENSE
BusinessNews recalled that states that signed the MoU on the Smart
State Initiative with the Ministry till date were singled out by the Council for
commendation and other States yet to join were urged to do so to accelerate the
pace of broadband infrastructure rollout within their States.
These States include Bayelsa, Ondo, Katsina, FCT, Lagos and Cross
Rivers are now Smart States while Anambra, Delta, Gombe and Osun State have
also agreed to become Smart States.
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @DigitalSENSEng @NaijaAgroNet @NkemNweke +Efem Nkanga +NGR COMMUNICATION +Naija AgroNet +DigitalSENSE Africa Media +ITU +BroadbandWorldForum @BroadbandCouncil
ITREALMS ... delivering news for ICT4D
Pix: Mrs Johnson, CommTech Minister.
No comments:
Post a Comment