Ubiquitous broadband availability and affordability have become panaceas in measuring countries’ readiness to play in 21st Century world; and its transformative power as an enabler for economic and social growth makes it an essential tool for empowering people, creating an environment that nurtures the technological and service innovation, and triggering positive change in business processes as well as in society as a whole.
In line with this, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday convoked a Stakeholder Consultative Forum in Lagos on plans and licensing of 70/80GHz Spectrum Band.
Nigeria, in the comity of telecommunications advancing nations, is noted for its sheer size and diversity with attached challenges, both for policy-makers and service providers.
The speed and scale of take-up for mobile phones, for instance, has been staggering but until recently this has not been matched by Internet take-up.
However, NCC believes that mobile broadband has accelerated the number of Internet users and looks set to increase overall levels of penetration in the future through the by exploring options for licensing users in the 70/80 gigahertz (GHz) Spectrum band.
The 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands, widely known as “e-band”, are permitted worldwide for ultra high capacity point-to-point communications.
Meanwhile, e-band propagation characteristics are comparable to those at the widely used microwave bands, and with well characterized weather characteristics allowing rain fade to be understood, link distances of several miles can confidently be realized.
Industry stakeholders, service providers, investors, financiers, VAS providers, and experts joined NCC’s management to chart the way forward for the licensing of service providers in this band within the Nigerian telecom industry.
In an address to the stakeholders, Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of NCC, observed that the 70/80 gigahertz (GHz) Spectrum band is yet to be fully explored and exploited in Nigeria.
Juwah added that beyond the Spectrum band usage and application lie the critical part of how to share the resources for the common good of the investor community, the service provider community and the consumer community.
The EVC who was represented by Alhaji Mohammed Bintube, a member of NCC board, said, “The challenge is how to balance the interest of the stakeholders and yet deliver the values available or derivable from this scare resource”
“On our part, we are also looking at how to align these potentials with the existing services and how it will affect the future outlook of the industry. Our zeal to achieve ubiquitous broadband availability across our nation is not a hidden agenda. We believe that effective and efficient sharing or allocation of the radio spectrum in the 70/80 GHz Band, for commercial use will provide a fillip in that direction”.
The NCC Boss said they had looked at the spectrum and the several licensing models and pricing schemes, believing that inputs from the diverse segments of the industry would enrich the Commission’s decisions.
On his part, Austin Nwaulune, director, Spectrum Administration at NCC, reiterated the economic benefits of the Spectrum Band, adding that e-band wireless systems offer the most compelling alternative to buried fiber with the following advantages over competing high capacity wireless technologies.
Apart from the robust weather resilience, long distance transmissions, guaranteed interference protection, and low cost, rapid license availability, e-band Spectrum band also offers the highest data rates of any wireless technology, with systems available that offer 1 Gbps and above full-duplex throughput.
He said that with budget friendly pricing regime NCC will licence the Spectrum band, the apex regulator hopes to, “address the growing demands by operators for data centric, high speed and high capacity links for metropolitan environment, as it is replica of fibre in the air. It will further assist the Commission’s drive for national Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) initiative and reduce the pressure and management challenges experienced with the Traditional Microwave Frequency Bands”.
Nwaulune also said, the measure will ensure broadband services become more accessible and pervasive with quality that is desirable.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ken Spann, MD/CEO, WaveTek Nigeria limited, testified that during the test-run of the Spectrum Band processes on Apapa-Surulere axis in Lagos, they found the wireless systems offer the most compelling alternative to buried fiber with competing high capacity wireless technologies.
Engineer Lanre Ajayi, president, Association of Telecommunication Company of Nigeria (ATCON), also applauded NCC for the decision to engage industry stakeholders on the plan and licencing.
According to him, experiences in the past were not too palatable to the operators who were meant to adhere strictly to NCC regulations without options of adding inputs.
At same time, NCC said that operators are expected to be professionals in the management of the process and adhere strictly to technical issues that may arise.
The process, Nwaulune said, will be in form of ‘light licencing’, but not without some evaluations, essentially, to ensure the licensees are discouraged for keeping the licences becoming dormant.