Broadband council meet, assesses progress

Anthony Nwakaegho /DigitalSENSE Business News

The Broadband Council met a few days to assess progress report as it affect public and private sector projections of the broadband plan.

The council which is charged with the responsibility of working on implementation modalities for the newly developed and approved Nigerian National Broadband plan met with the Minister of Communication Technology Mrs. Omobola Johnson, with top on its agenda  the issue of policy and regulation, a nationwide publishing and communication of the agreed Right of Way Guidelines  that will commence in November, a legal services firm  appointed to draft a Critical National Infrastructure Bill  which is now under review, while a preliminary report open access framework is expected by the end of November 2013.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls the President’s goal is to see broadband penetration increase by 2017 and for 80 per cent of the population to have access to mobile broadband and 20 per cent to fixed broadband.

Council talked about a stakeholder forum on developing an Interconnect scheme for national and long distance operators is billed to be held in November and to support this; mention was made of GIS Mapping of fibre infrastructure also underway with the six zonal maps produced for each geo-political zone being integrated into one by December 2013. 

DigitalSENSE Business News also gathered the following from council’s deliberations: collaborations with state governments on resolution of issues affecting the rollout of base stations; a spectrum audit has been initiated to complete the task within six months while an auction of spectrum is being planned by the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

Others areas of deliberations include: a cost-based pricing model for guiding fibre duct leasing is being drafted and will be ready by the end of November as part of the open access framework; clear targets for increased collocation on base stations and increased rollout to improve nationwide coverage; resolving thorny issues to do with the speedy roll out of base stations between National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), NCC and the Ministry of Environment. 

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pix:Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson