Ben Uzor Jr
The delay in the approval of a national
broadband policy for the country is threatening N347 billion ($2.24bn)
investments in underwater cable systems, industry analysts have said. The
broadband policy, according to industry analysts is expected to encourage
infrastructure sharing and open up the broadband infrastructure market to
foreign and local investors. This, they argue would facilitate the aggressive
build out of requisite distribution and lastmile infrastructure needed to move
available bandwidth capacity from undersea cables across the length and breadth
of the country. A new report by the Oxford Business Group (OBG) showed that there
are four active undersea cable firms, including Nigerian Telecommunications
(NITEL), providing a total of 7.78 terabits per second of capacity. This,
according to analysts is a major boost in the capacity available to drive
bandwidth dependent services.
Despite the enormous bandwidth capacity
emanating from these cables, Nigerians are yet to benefit from the investments
in the area of affordable and efficient broadband services. The 7, 000 –
kilometre MainOne submarine, which went live in 2010 is valued at $240 million.
The 10, 000 kilometre Glo-1 cable cost $800, 000 to build. Industry analysts
place the worth of NITEL’s South Atlantic 3 (SAT 3) at about $600 million.
While MTN’s West African Cable System (WACS), cost about $600 million. This
means that the total investments and other expenses rose to $2.24 billion.
Funke Opeke, chief executive officer, MainOne cable in an interview expressed
dismay at the level of utilisation of these undersea cable infrastructures. She
has at various fora advocated for a national policy on broadband to accelerate
rapid penetration of the internet, lower cost of distribution and to speed up
economic development.
About 5 percent of the capacity from the
MainOne Cable is utilised, Opeke told Benuzorreports. This low utilisation of the
international cable infrastructure is across board. This, according to industry
analysts has implications for the Nigerian economy as new business
opportunities such mobile applications development, Value Added Services (VAS),
telemedicine expected to spring up as a result of the emergence of the cables
are still non-existent. Usen Udoh, senior director, management consulting at
Accenture Nigeria shares Opeke’s sentiments. He was quoted in a report as
saying the continued delay in developing a national broadband policy to push
the bandwidth to rural areas is currently bringing people's creativity to
waste. “It is that broadband policy that would then be able to expand or ensure
access into the hinterlands and then bring huge bandwidth that is on our coast
to the hinterlands.
“Without that last mile connection, it is
like somebody who just brought a huge pot of soup and put it in front of your
house and there are no plates to go there and serve the food and bring them
in.” Kazeem Oladepo, a member, Board of Trustees of the Association of Licensed
Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) believes a national broadband policy
would go a long way in boosting broadband infrastructure build. Oladepo however
blamed the low broadband penetration in the country on weak demand for
broadband capacities by Nigerians. “Government must put all its services
online, such that for anybody to access government information, the person must
go online. For any civil servant to fill government form, the person goes online.
By doing so, government would create demand for broadband access.
Giving his advice on what government needs to
attract investment in broadband infrastructure, Oladepo said, "there are
two basic issues to broadband penetration and they include access and demand.
While access has to do with the level of the infrastructure rollout that will
enable everyone have access to broadband, demand in itself depends on the need
for broadband by the citizens, which has to do with creating awareness on the
part of the citizens in order to expose them to the importance of broadband.”
Oladepo said the prices have actually crashed at the wholesale international
connectivity level but that reduction in prices had trickled down to the end
user. This, he added was because the gap between the wholesale and retail
services has not been adequately bridged through infrastructure, which delays
access and generally hinders end users from benefitting in corresponding
proportion on the radical price reduction, combined with superior services
quality. “Few years back, we bought IPLC bandwidth off NITEL at rates that were
close to $1,500 per Meg. Today, you can buy the same capacity at between $300
and $500, depending on the volume and duration of service you are buying.”
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