National broadband plan: Moving from planning to implementation

Broadband have been globally acknowledged as the foundation for the nation’s transformation to a knowledge-based economy, writes BEN UZOR JR.

The road to an efficient broadband service in Nigeria has been a long and arduous one. Indeed, internet connectivity has come a long way from a single international submarine cable system with 340 GB total capacity installed in 2001 (SAT3) to a total of four cable systems with international bandwidth capacity of over nine Terra bits by 2012. Despite the progress that has been made, Nigeria is still a far cry from achieving what is considered global broadband standards even among other developing countries.

The Internet access market is still characterised by the slow and exasperating access to the cyberspace. There have been many bottlenecks to the provision of effective broadband service in the country ranging from Infrastructural challenges to regulation and capacity issues. As at 2012, Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate was put unofficially at 6 percent, which means the country is seeking to achieve 30 percent penetration by the end of 2017.

But why is the development of broadband so critical to Nigeria? The reasons are not far-fetched. Internet and broadband have been globally acknowledged as the foundation for the nation’s transformation to a knowledge-based economy. It is also widely acknowledged that broadband infrastructure is an enabler for economic and social growth of the economy. World Bank studies show, that in low and middle –income countries, every 10 percent point increase in broadband penetration accelerates economic growth by 1.38 percentage points.

Globally, nations both developed and developing are making elaborate plans to ensure access to broadband internet to its citizens with various countries coming up with broadband plans to address their peculiar broadband needs.

In Ghana, On 23 July 2009, the government of Ghana signed a US$150 million contract with Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies for the supply of advanced telecoms infrastructure to ensure broadband internet access countrywide within the next two years. The Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, told delegates that the infrastructure would link internet Point of Presence (POP) in all district capitals under the government’s broadband Development Programme.

Earlier in the year, the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, approved the country’s National Broadband Plan for the period 2013 to 2018, which aims to significantly improve access to high speed internet services. The five-year plan was developed by the Presidential Committee on Broadband, which was inaugurated by the government in September 2012, and was presented to the president by Minister of Communication Technology Omobola Johnson in June 2013. The main aim of the plan is to increase broadband penetration by five times by the end of 2017.

Speaking after receiving the broadband plan, President Jonathan said, “the successful implementation of the National Broadband Strategy and Roadmap will help to positively revolutionise communications in Nigeria…I thank you for your work and I assure you that the report will be adopted by government and implementation will begin immediately because our people are hungry for information and we are in a hurry to fully integrate our country into the digital communications age.”

The National broadband plan outlines a number of ways in which the government aims to achieve this, including: establishing policies that regard ICT networks and installations as critical national infrastructure that qualify for special government protection; promoting transparency of pricing and reduction of rollout costs by encouraging infrastructure sharing and interconnections and introducing price caps where necessary or when market forces fail; taking necessary regulatory measures to ensure better performance levels in the delivery of broadband services; facilitating rapid rollout of wireless and wire-line infrastructure and providing incentives to encourage a national 3G wireless coverage to at least 80 percent  of the population by 2018; and the release of more spectrum for broadband services, especially for Long Term Evolution (LTE)

However, even as industry stakeholders have commended the move by the Federal Government, many analysts are sceptical about the promises made noting that in this part of the world, setting up committees, panels and filing reports or drafting policies have never been a problem; but the issue has always been what becomes of those  reports or policies thereafter.

Indeed, many industry watchers are slowly beginning to clamour for the implementation of the nation’s broadband policy which has been ratified by the presidency. The CEO of Airtel, Segun Ogunsanya has been a vocal supporter of the implementation of the broadband policy, stating that speedy implementation of the document could contribute about N190 billion to the country’s GDP.

He said, “As it concerns broadband adoption and utilization, there should be Government’s affirmative action targeting the delivery of social and public services over Broadband. The zeal applied by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Federal Government in E-Payment and Cashless Policy initiatives should also be replicated in driving adoption and utilization by the populace,”.

The argument for the delay in implementation has always been that the plan is over a five year period and that many of the elements outlined in the policy document are long term when it comes to implementation. Industry analysts advise however, that there are certain elements within the National broadband policy document that are “Low hanging fruits” and as such can be immediately implemented to give a sense of assurance to industry players of the seriousness of the regulators towards implementing the broadband plan.

One good example is the release of more spectrums and creation of a guard band for broadband services among the 2.3GHz spectrum operators. The spectrum currently experiences serious interference from adjacent mutual transmissions among operators. This is one of the few areas that can be immediately implemented by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and also where improvements can be felt by the service providers and the consumers.

Minister of Communication Technology, Omobola Johnson, who inaugurated the Broadband Council, said it would help the government to implement a roadmap for a national broadband plan. She said, “Common areas of interest include the implementation of the National Broadband Plan, National Policy on ICT, digital and financial inclusion, local content framework, use of frequency spectrum and National Strategic e-Government Framework and collection of data on ICT sector.”

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Eugene Juwah said recently at the Common Wealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) 2013 forum that implementation of the broadband policy would begin at the end of October of 2013.

With these in view, it would look like the implementation of the national broadband policy may begin to happen as planned but there are worries and concerns about conflicting reports as the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Eugene Juwah, in April said that there would be auctioning of the remaining bands of the 2.3GHz frequency slots as opposed to selling them to the existing operators and using what is left to create a guard band as stipulated in the broadband policy document.

According to Juwah, “the commission is also getting ready to auction the remainder of 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands… auctioning would enable the telecommunications sector to fast track development and makes it more LTE enabled”.

At the recently concluded Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) conference in Abuja, The ICT Minister reiterated the government’s commitment to actualise the National Broadband Plan in its entirety.

With conflicting reports like this industry stakeholders remain sceptical about the commitment of the NCC to follow through with the whole of the objectives itemised in the national broadband policy. Only time will tell if the concerns of industry watchers are substantiated.