Nokia Networks (NNs) at its telecom conference titled, ‘Connect Nigeria: Exploring ICT Potential for Growth’, declared its readiness to enable Nigeria’s broadband strategy become reality.

NNs explored the road for connected Nigeria in line with the government’s ambitious National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2013-2018.

The plan aims to increase broadband penetration from 6% in 2013 to 30% by 2018.

It also aims to cover 80% of the population with 3G and LTE services and offer a minimum download speed of 1.5 Mbps.

About 150 industry experts representing Nokia Networks, operators, government, and IT companies participated in the conference.

According to a recent GSMA report, Nigeria is a fast growing economy and the largest one in Africa, but has low mobile broadband penetration.

However, due to various factors including high access rates of over 50% of the population (those who use a mobile despite not owning one), data consumption growth, a rise in digital entrepreneurship, and a large youthful population, Nigeria presents a growing opportunity for investment and innovation in telecom networks.

At the Conference, Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), “The Nokia Networks conference has brought out excellent insights from various telecom industry players on how to achieve further mobile broadband penetration in Nigeria in line with our ambitious NBP.

“The government is committed to enabling the operators to take the quality and coverage of mobile broadband services to a new level for the benefit of greater socio-economic development. We are confident that Nokia Networks’ commitments and advanced 2G, 3G and 4G mobile broadband technologies will significantly contribute in providing high quality mobile broadband services in our country on a par with leading services around the world.”

Also speaking, Bernard Najm, vice president and head of Middle East and Africa, Nokia Networks, said that Nigeria is a priority country in the Africa region for Nokia Networks.

Najm said, “Mobile broadband infrastructure in Nigeria needs to be strengthened to significantly improve network coverage and speed across the country including mid-size cities and rural areas. To help achieve National Broadband Plan’s objectives and drive the country’s socio-economic development, we are committed to providing operators here with our advanced 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, and global expertise in services to build and run the networks cost efficiently.”

In addition to its office in Abuja, the company opened its second modern office in Lagos in 2014 to enhance its operational agility for delivery of its mobile broadband infrastructure for all operators in the country.

In his contribution, David Gaul, head of Central East & West Africa (CEWA), said that Nokia Networks is the world’s specialist in mobile broadband with more than 200 3G radio customers serving over 1 bn 3G users worldwide.

He added that, the company is a global leader in LTE with 162 LTE customers by the end of 2014 and holds the world record in TDD-FDD carrier aggregation with 4.1Gbps.

“The company’s leadership in LTE has been recognized by Gartner which positioned the company in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant of the analyst’s Magic Quadrant for LTE in Q4, 2014. Nokia Networks’2020 vision predicts consumption of 1GB of personalized data per user per day.

“The company’s advanced, scalable radio technologies coupled with professional services aim to help operators in countries with low Average Revenue Per User (ARPUs) meet the ever growing network demands in a profitable way.

According to him, Nokia has since incorporated Nigeria in its strategy anchored on developing its businesses in order to realize its vision of being a technology leader in a connected world and, in turn, create long-term shareholder value.

He said Nokia works towards a ‘programmable’ world. “Today, most humans in the world are connected.  By 2020, we think the number will reach 5 billion. This means we are entering a new phase, connecting things as well as people; this is a rapid shift to what we call the Programmable World. By 2025, we could have 50 billion things connected through devices, modules and sensors. That might even prove to be a conservative estimate.

“But the programmable world is about more than connectivity it is the interaction of sensors, people and ‘things’ and, in this context, a ‘nuclear power station’ could be a ‘thing’.  The possibilities are endless and software will be the glue that brings both meaning and value to the Programmable World.

But there are also some challenges and conflicts to address: Explosion of technology choices; Alienating, increasing complexity of tech; Needy tech and Dependence on data and privacy, post Snowden world.

Also, Dr. Sam Nwosu, country director, Nokia Networks said that the Nigeria must address infrastructural challenges and remove other administrative bottlenecks militating against the network operators.

“Through Nokia Networks, Nokia invests in the innovative products and services needed by telecoms operators to manage the increase in wireless data traffic which is more than doubling every year.

“Future investment will focus on further building on our strong position in mobile broadband and related services, and strengthening our leadership position in next-generation network technologies. Our global experts invent the new capabilities our customers need in their networks. We provide the world’s most efficient mobile networks, the intelligence to maximize the value of those networks, and the services to make it all work seamlessly.

“At the same time, we encourage the enhancement of infrastructural development in the country to augment telecom operators’ investments,” he said. 

Nokia invests in technologies important in a world where billions of devices are connected.

It’s focused on three businesses: network infrastructure software, hardware and services, which offered through Nokia Networks; location intelligence, which it provides through HERE; and advanced technology development and licensing, which it pursues through Nokia Technologies.

Meanwhile, Nokia divested its handset business to Microsoft in early 2014. The new Nokia now focuses on three strong business divisions – Nokia Networks, HERE, and Nokia Technologies.

Nokia Networks (which was formerly known as Nokia Solutions and Networks or NSN) is the largest business (90%) in the new Nokia, with this division contributing to 90% of its overall business in the company.