Despite huge capacities brought in by submarine cable companies into the country internet speed still snarls, no thanks to a legion of problems including the dearth of last mile infrastructure, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.
MainOne, Glo 1 and West African Cable System (WACS), all private submarine cable companies brought in a total of 9.54 Tb/s in addition to some 340 Gbit/s by the legacy Sat-3.
The arrival of these undersea cables was expected to push up internet speed and reduce cost but little has been achieved in terms of accessibility, availability and affordability.
One of the reasons the huge availability of bandwidth on the shores of the country are yet to have direct impact on Nigerians is the absence of last mile infrastructure to convey the essential commodity to offices and homes across the country.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that there is also lack of policy framework for broadband infrastructure development while Nigeria’s notoriously unreliable power supply also serves to exacerbate the problems.
Elsewhere, the claims and counter charges by various government agencies each claiming the right to regulate the industry is hurting investment.
There is also the issue of problems of obtaining right of ways from local and state governments and multiple taxations.
Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice-chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) however said that is pushing for broadband plan and strategies with focus on penetration, accessibility and policies.
Nodding in agreement, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, chairman, Open Media Group, said there was need to formulate a broadband policy on broadband deployments in Nigeria.
Ndukwe who gazed in the crystal ball and foretold the looming revolution urged government to fashion the policy with the support of the private sector.
Mohammed Rudman, managing director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), said availability of distributive channels of internet and making it accessible to ISPs is essential for the country to witness a broadband revolution.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the epileptic nature of internet service delivery is impacting adversely on all spheres of national economy.
For instance, financial institutions especially deposit money banks and their customers complain of snail speed in verification and confirmation of transactions.
Same applies to customers who need to make payments at merchants’ locations via Point of Sale (PoS) terminals and those who need to withdraw money from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) as they are sometimes in and out of service.
Also travel agencies are also not left out as they need to check fares and confirm available seats and dates on airlines.