General News
Harmonized Spectrum Bands Key to Mobile Broadband -Bateson
Ross Bateson is special adviser on government at GSMA; his projects have included defining use of the Digital Dividend with the mobile and broadcasting community in Russia, Eastern Europe and the CIS, and coordinating political engagement on the GSMA’s Mobile Broadband project in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Prior to the GSMA Ross worked at telecoms consultancy access partnership where he served as a director charged with government affairs. He was at the just concluded NigeriaCom and spoke to chike Onwuegbuchi on industry issues
Sorting out Nigeria Spectrum Licensing
The important issue with allocating spectrum for mobile broadband is to make sure that it is done on a harmonized basis. There is no point in having one piece of spectrum made available for mobile broadband in Nigeria, it is totally different from the rest of the world. That will make mobile equipment very expensive. It is important that manufacturers of equipment can reach economies of scale and drastically lower the cost of both the devices that consumers use with their mobile phones and the base stations on the part of the network as well. Regulators really need to allocate harmonized spectrum and that is organized and decided by a United Nations agency, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). A lot of international discussions at the ITU resulted in the production of harmonized spectrum bands. The next important issue is for harmonized spectrum bands to become available, they are not currently available in Nigeria. Another very important is the 2.5 GHZ band, it is being used across the world and it will be used to roll out high speed mobile broadband.
The 2.5 GHZ band is very important; it is quite a high frequency, so it does not reach very long distance. Remember, a long wave radio signal travels faster than a short wave radio, so the higher frequencies do not travel the same distance across large areas of the country but they are very good in providing high capacity networks in urban areas.
The Nigerian government needs to come to a conclusion on replanning the 2.5GHZ band. I believe that the NCC has made very good progress, in doing so the discussions between the NCC and the NBC are really continuing and I look forward to the new executive vice chairman, Eugene Juwah, achieving success on that issue. I think it is going to be at the top of the things to do and that will ensure that mobile broadband is rolled out quickly and cost effective in Nigeria.
Ensuring Lower Cost of Mobile Broadband Access Equipment
There are two important things I think you need to look at. The first is ensuring that in the future, the spectrum used is harmonized. That radically reduces the cost of the handset and subscribers are very sensitive to the cost of handsets. Just lowering the cost of the handset by a few per cent can dramatically increase the take up of its usage in any particular market. Spectrum in Nigeria must be harmonized so that an equipment manufacturer can make one unit and sell it across the whole of Europe and the whole of Africa in large numbers, thus realizing economies of scale.
Secondly, the GSMA has put in place a number of initiatives to look at finding cheaper 3G phones. In the last few years, we have had several initiatives in that regard trying to award prizes to high quality but nevertheless lower cost 3G phones and that pulls the prices of some of the most simple 3G phones down to $30 or $40 and they are much more affordable than it had been seen in the past.
Digital Mobile Community Initiative
The GSMA has a huge global campaign on digital dividends. We believe that is one of the most important things to turn the mobile market over in the next few years. The digital dividend is a concept of releasing some of the frequencies that would be made available once analogue TV is switched off and the digital TV is switched on. Digital TV is much more efficient so, it will produce many times as many channels using its significant spectrum at that quarter. The digital dividend allocates this old bulk of frequencies for mobile broadband use and it is significant because the frequencies are lower than most frequently available for mobile broadband.
This means that the signals travels further, the operators do not need to put many base stations on their networks, and the network is much cheaper to offer services. That in turn means that, people in countries where network operators have to cover large geographical areas can receive mobile broadband at lower prices. This is what the GSMA campaign has run for four years now all over the world.
It was initially concentrated in Russia, because of an existing legacy allocation that was used by the Russian military, making it an important country to come to an agreement with. We did a lot of work with the Russian government and with the Russian military in trying to free up the spectrum.
The agreement in principal has now been made in Russia and that is because of Russia’s huge borders. It means that a lot of countries bordering Russia can also use the spectrum.
Digital switch over is just taking off in Africa and we have to make sure that we give support to African governments in order to put in place the tools they need, to come on this spectrum. That very much includes Nigeria; it is a vital market for us and a very important one.
Nigeria and the digital dividend is a difficult situation. The radius of the technical band spectrum in Africa and Europe lies between 790 and 862 MHZ, there is a CDMA allocation in that band. That makes Nigeria’s position rather difficult in allocating the spectrum because you cannot allocate clean contributory chunks in the same way as other countries in Europe or Africa might. We have begun discussions with a number of countries having similar situation and it is just in two parts. Firstly, where the CDMA operators are running very slightly used or the allocation is not used for more than a few base stations, we suggest being very straight on the use it or loose it law to the CDMA operator.
The other option is for regulators to look at allocating a lower band. In the whole of the Americas, the digital dividend says the lower piece of spectrum is between 698 and 886 MHZ and that is free in Nigeria. That will be a very good option for Nigeria.
Submarine Cables in Fast Tracking Mobile Broadband
The submarine cable issue is vital, especially the good position that Nigeria is now in, in having competition between submarine cables. That capacity provides very important backhaul capacity for mobile operators and they are able to choose which submarine operator to use, meaning that they can expect competitive prices. It will become of crucial importance when mobile broadband takes off. There are around 800,000 subscribers I think, using High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and mobile broadband technology in Nigeria at the moment. We expect that to multiply over a magnitude of 10 times in the very near future. That would need a lot of capacity to cover the backhaul issue but we could carry the signal from the mobile phone tower into the internet at large and the submarine cable will be tightly important as mobile broadband takes off.
Changes in Technology
The GSM family consist a number of different technologies to fit in together and logically follow one another as the network progresses, from GSM to 3G- wide band CDMA as it is called, to the HSPA upgrade– allowing for higher data speed to HSPA+, which is being rolled out in Africa today, to LTE which started being rolled out in Europe a year ago and now there are several networks planned in Africa. These are logical follow-on and products that fit in together are entirely compatible with one another. Operators can move at a very obvious development offering to progress as their networks progress. Wimax is a different technology, it is not compatible with the products currently being offered by the mobile operators, and so, where people have exhausted the use of Wimax, they have to come in, in building an entirely new network. This has proved very difficult for the Wimax to come across and has led to Wimax being considered today in 2010 as a niche technology. It is a very good technology but it will never be a mass market technology like HSPA and LTE. Wimax has really suffered because it is not grand fathered with the previous technology and that has been a problem. We are saying a lot of operators investing in HSPA and LTE networks are continuing with the niche product but there is no major operator. The Russian operator moved out of the Wimax space to favour LTE. Earlier this year, there were big hopes for Wimax but they have not turned out. American Wimax operators have commenced plans to move to LTE in the medium term.
Moving to Next Level in Telecom Development
There are a number issues in Nigeria that still need to be faced and it is not that the NCC has not done a lot of very good work over the last 10 years. I look forward to the NCC carrying on in Dr. Juwah’s leadership as effectively as Engr. Ndukwe’s leadership. We would like to see some things done better. Access to spectrum for mobile operators has been very slow and in order words, they are not entirely transparent. The globally harmonized bands that we spoke of, the 2.5GHZ are very important and over the next coming months I hope to see strong plans to allocate this spectrum along internationally recognized guidelines-what we call ‘ITU option one’ to allocate spectrum for what we call FTD technologies on the 2.5GHZ band and that would be very important.
There are a number of other issues that need to be faced by the Nigerian government. Ensuring clarity and transparency in regulation would be vital. The NCC has done very well but there are other things we would like them to improve on. The way mobile phones are taxed in Nigeria is at times oppressive to market growth. We have done a lot of studies to show that putting luxury and value added tax on mobile phone usage dampens the growth of mobile phone markets to such an extent that if you removed the luxury taxes, the market would grow so significantly that the total tax allocation would be higher. The government would actually receive more tax because so many people are using mobile phones.
Other issues remain the grey and black market for mobile phone use in Nigeria remains damagingly high. These devices are not approved by the NCC or indeed anyone else, they are devices made extraordinarily cheaply abroad, they cause a lot of interference problems that are not properly tuned into the network and that is a major problem in Nigeria.
The key thing that I would like to see is the allocation of internationally harmonized spectrum for mobile broadband. At least the road map to doing that at present the picture is not clear.
Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned the Federal Government’s alleged tax evasion case against Binance Holdings Ltd. cryptocurrency exchange, until September 24, 2026, to allow both parties more time to pursue an out-of-court settlement.
Justice Emeka Nwite fixed the new date on Thursday after Moses Ideho, counsel to the Federal Government, informed the court that discussions aimed at resolving the dispute amicably were still ongoing.
Ideho, a deputy director of Legal and Prosecution at the Nigeria Revenue Service (formerly the Federal Inland Revenue Service), told the court that the matter, which had been scheduled for a report on settlement or continuation of trial, could not proceed.
According to him, one reason for the delay was the reported elevation of Justice Nwite to the Court of Appeal, while the second was the continued reconciliation efforts between the parties.
“The parties are still exploring settlement in the charge that led to this case,” Ideho told the court.
Sunday Agaji, counsel to Binance, did not oppose the application for adjournment, following which Justice Nwite postponed proceedings until September 24 for either a report on the settlement discussions or continuation of trial.
The case was previously adjourned on May 12 after both the Federal Government and Binance informed the court that negotiations were underway to settle the matter outside the courtroom.
Binance had first indicated its willingness to pursue an amicable resolution on March 24.
The cryptocurrency company was re-arraigned on July 12, 2024, on a four-count charge bordering on alleged tax evasion.
Ayodele Omotilewa, Nigerian representative, pleaded not guilty on behalf of the company.
The re-arraignment followed the removal of Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, from the charge after the Federal Government amended the case to make Binance Holdings Ltd the sole defendant.
Justice Nwite had, on June 14, 2024, discharged and struck out the names of Gambaryan and Anjarwalla after the prosecution filed the amended charge.
Binance is also facing a separate criminal prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which accuses the company of laundering about $35.4m.
In addition, the Nigeria Revenue Service is pursuing a separate civil suit against Binance before another judge of the Federal High Court, seeking approximately $79.5bn in alleged economic losses linked to the company’s operations in Nigeria.
Oodua Youth Coalition (OYC), a Yoruba socio-cultural group, has issued a notice to stage peaceful picketing at MTN Nigeria offices nationwide.
This action stems from the company’s alleged failure to publicly condemn recent xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa.
This is coming despite statement by Karl Toriola, chief executive officer, MTN Nigeria, who recently said that MTN may have originated from South Africa, he explained, but MTN Nigeria is a Nigerian publicly quoted company, managed by Nigerians and with a Nigerian board.
However, in a statement jointly signed Olatunji Adejuwon and Olaoye Abolaji,vice president and national secretary respectively of OYC, described MTN Nigeria’s silence as unacceptable, given the company’s South African roots and the patronage it enjoys from Nigerians
The coalition said it would proceed with a peaceful protest if the telecommunications company continued to ignore its demands, stressing that the action was intended to draw attention to the need for corporate responsibility and moral leadership in condemning xenophobic attacks against fellow Africans.
“Consequently, the Oodua Youth Coalition hereby gives notice that we shall, without hesitation, commence a peaceful picketing of MTN Nigeria’s offices if the company continues to ignore our legitimate demands.
“Our action is intended to draw attention to the need for corporate responsibility and moral leadership in condemning acts of xenophobia against fellow Africans,” the statement said.
The group renewed its call on MTN Nigeria to immediately convene a press conference, with representatives of the coalition in attendance, to unequivocally condemn the xenophobic attacks and reaffirm its commitment to the safety, dignity and unity of all Africans.
It maintained that the proposed protest would be peaceful, orderly and in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to the coalition, relevant security agencies have been notified of the planned action, while appropriate communications have also been sent to the South African diplomatic mission in Nigeria.
“We once again call on MTN Nigeria to immediately convene a press conference, with representatives of the Oodua Youth Coalition in attendance, to unequivocally condemn the xenophobic attacks and reaffirm its commitment to the safety, dignity and unity of all Africans.
“We emphasise that our proposed action shall remain peaceful, orderly and in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Relevant security agencies have been duly notified, and appropriate communications have also been sent to the South African diplomatic mission in Nigeria.”
Reaffirming its commitment to defending the rights and dignity of Nigerians, the coalition vowed not to relent until its concerns received the desired attention.
“The Oodua Youth Coalition remains committed to defending the dignity of Nigerians and promoting African solidarity. We will not relent until our concerns receive the attention they deserve,” the statement added.
Responding to the controversy, Toriola further condemned all forms of xenophobia and violence against Africans living in South Africa, insisting that MTN Nigeria is a Nigerian company with substantial local ownership.
“We unequivocally condemn any form of xenophobia, violence or attacks against any community in the world. We’re a Nigerian company, through and through. We’re listed on the stock exchange with over 201,000 retail investors, and 11 million people hold shares through their pension funds in MTN Nigeria.
“We provide the digital backbone of the economy, and we have a completely Nigerian entity.
“Yes, MTN was founded in South Africa, and the parent company that is the majority shareholder is South African. But let’s also look at it objectively. The shareholding of MTN Holding South Africa is only 50 per cent African.
“The remaining 50 per cent is from across the world — 27 per cent from the United States, with the rest from the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region,” Toriola said.
By Bidemi Oke
Every civilisation has been built on one invisible infrastructure. The Romans built roads. The Industrial Revolution built electricity. The Internet built information. The next economy may be built on something far less tangible.
Trust
That sounds counterintuitive because we have spent centuries believing that money is the foundation of every economy. It isn’t. Money has never been the foundation; it has simply been the mechanism through which trust is exchanged. Every major financial innovation, from coins and paper notes to credit cards, online banking and blockchain, has been humanity’s attempt to solve the same problem: “how do we help strangers trust one another without ever meeting?”
Seen through that lens, today’s financial revolution looks very different.
Most discussions about digital finance revolve around whether cash will disappear. We debate mobile wallets, central bank digital currencies, cryptocurrency, real-time payments and digital banking. Yet these conversations often mistake the visible change for the actual transformation.
The real shift is not that money is becoming digital. The real shift is that trust is becoming programmable. That single idea explains why the financial landscape is changing faster than many people realize.
For decades, finance has depended on institutions to create confidence. Banks verified identities, governments authenticated currencies, contracts relied on lawyers, payment networks validated transactions and every exchange involved an intermediary whose primary role was to reassure two parties that the system could be trusted.
Technology is quietly rewriting that arrangement
Today, identities can be verified digitally. Transactions can be authenticated within seconds, smart contracts can execute agreements automatically once predefined conditions are met, and artificial intelligence can detect suspicious activity before humans notice it. Increasingly, confidence is being built into the infrastructure itself rather than added afterwards.
This is why I believe we need a new way to think about the evolution of finance, not as a journey from cash to digital payments, but as “three generations of financial trust”.
The first generation was Physical Trust. Trust was tied to tangible assets like gold, paper currency, handwritten signatures and face-to-face interactions. Confidence came from what people could physically see and hold.
The second generation was Institutional Trust. As economies expanded, institutions became the guarantors of financial confidence. Banks, regulators, payment networks and financial intermediaries enabled transactions at a scale impossible through personal relationships alone. Trust shifted from physical objects to established organisations.
We are now entering the third generation: Programmable Trust.
Here, trust is embedded directly into technology. Verification happens automatically. Payments settle in real time, financial services become integrated into everyday experiences instead of existing as separate destinations. Increasingly, people interact with trusted systems rather than trusted institutions alone. That distinction is more profound than it first appears.
Many organisations still measure digital transformation by counting how many services have moved online, but digitising an existing process is not the same as redesigning how trust flows through an economy. Converting paperwork into an application does not automatically create a digital financial ecosystem.
This explains why some economies process millions of digital transactions every day yet continue to face friction, inefficiency and limited financial inclusion. The missing ingredient is rarely another payment platform. More often, it is interoperable infrastructure, trusted digital identity, consistent regulation and systems capable of working together seamlessly.
In other words, the future of finance will not be determined by who builds the fastest application. It will be determined by who builds the most trusted ecosystem.
This has significant implications for Africa. The continent has rightly earned global recognition for accelerating digital financial adoption. Yet the next opportunity extends beyond increasing transaction volumes. The greater challenge is designing financial infrastructure where payments, identity, data, compliance and commerce interact intelligently rather than operating in isolation.
That is where long-term competitive advantage will emerge. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the more advanced finance becomes, the less visible it will appear.
People rarely think about the internet protocols that power a video call or the cloud infrastructure supporting an online purchase. Likewise, future generations may hardly think about payment rails, settlement networks or blockchain architecture. Financial experiences will simply happen securely, instantly and almost invisibly.
History suggests that successful technologies eventually disappear from our attention not because they become less important, but because they become so reliable that we stop noticing them altogether.
So, are we entering a fully digital financial economy? Perhaps that is no longer the right question.
A more useful question is whether we are entering an economy where trust itself becomes digital infrastructure because if that is true, then the organisations shaping the future of finance are not merely moving money more efficiently.
They are redesigning how entire economies create confidence at scale and that may prove to be the most valuable innovation of all.
Bidemi Oke is the Chief Executive Officer of FlashChange, a fintech platform focused on secure digital asset exchange. He is an entrepreneur and vibrant leader, recognized for driving innovation and redefining access in the financial technology industry.
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