Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Nwana joins Dynamic Spectrum Alliance as Executive Director


The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Tuesday confirmed to DigitalSENSE Business News the appointment of Prof. Hyacinth Nwana as its Executive Director. This comes at an exciting time as the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance strengthens its engagement with regulators and government officials to promote the adoption of legal and regulatory frameworks that facilitate dynamic access to radio spectrum.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that prior to joining the Alliance in this newly created role, Nwana was Group Director of Spectrum Policy at Ofcom, the UK’s independent communications regulator, where he spearheaded dynamic spectrum management, specifically focusing on TV White Spaces for broadband, and led on all UK Spectrum Policy. Nwana has also recently founded Atlantic Telecoms and Media.

As a recognized authority in Telecoms, Media and Technology (TMT) Prof. Nwana has recently authored an authoritative book on TMT for Developing Economies where he strongly argues the case for Dynamic Spectrum and TV White Space access in combination with low cost models and technologies to provide Affordable and Accessible broadband to the next ‘5 billion unconnected’. This has already moved Dynamic Spectrum efforts and TV White Spaces up the agenda in Africa, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

Whilst at Ofcom, Nwana was responsible for multi-million pound policy projects including the UK’s Digital TV Clearance programme of Channels 61, 62 and 69. He also oversaw the completion of the policy implementation of the rest of the UK’s digital switchover programme, and the multi-billion pound successful auction of the released spectrum. Nwana was also the Chairman of the Ofcom Spectrum Clearance and Award programme which reported into the Ofcom Board as well as the British Government and commercially negotiated deals with UK broadcasters, broadcast transmission providers and radar manufacturers totalling over a hundred million pounds sterling.

Prior to Ofcom, Nwana was Managing Director for 4 years at Arqiva, the UK’s £800M leading transmissions provider, communications infrastructure and media services company. Before Arqiva, he was Executive Director at Quadriga Worldwide Ltd where he was instrumental in the introduction of digital technology and services to the hospitality industry across Europe, Middle East, and Africa including high speed Internet, Wi-Fi, digital pay TV and video-on-demand in over 1700 hotels. Before Quadriga, he was a venture capitalist for 2 years and, even earlier, a Senior award-winning and published technologist at BT plc for 5 years.

Working in collaboration with, and under the direction of, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Board of Directors and Chairman, Nwana will assist with the development and execution of the organization’s strategic initiatives and outreach to and recruitment of potential partners and members across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. He will also serve as a public spokesperson for the initiative in worldwide venues and manage the organization’s vendors, overall budget and communication programs.

“H Nwana brings a wealth of public and private sector experience in the areas of wireless technology and spectrum policy and regulation,” said Paul Garnett, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Chairman of the Board and Director of Technology Policy at Microsoft. “H understands that spectrum policy – when done right – can deliver huge benefits to society, including in the areas of social and digital inclusion and in improving quality of life for the world’s inhabitants. H also happens to be great at bringing people together around areas of common interest.  So, I am thrilled that H has agreed to lead stakeholders from industry, academia, research, and government in looking at new ways of managing the radio spectrum leveraging dynamic spectrum access technologies.”

Nwana added: “The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance is investing in the future, paving the way for new innovative wireless technologies and spectrum-sharing. The nirvana of dynamic spectrum regulation should be something all regulators should aspire to, in order to drive-up spectrum efficiency.”

One of H Nwana’s first tasks will be leading this year’s Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit, which takes place in Accra, Ghana on 13-14 May 2014.

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
Pix: Prof Nwana

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