Broadband: Two coys to get licences by September -NCC

Speaking in Abuja at the budget defense meeting between the Senate Committee on Communications and the NCC and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman Dr Eugene Juwah said the “ two very big” companies would get their licenses after meeting the requirements which would soon be advertised by the commission. One […]

Speaking in Abuja at the budget defense meeting between the Senate Committee on Communications and the NCC and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman Dr Eugene Juwah said the “ two very big” companies would get their licenses after meeting the requirements which would soon be advertised by the commission.
One of the companies is expected to handle the Lagos area and other will be providing the fibre infrastructure in the North Central zone including Abuja, Dr Juwah said.
He said the remaining five companies should receive their licenses by December, all things being equal.
When the seven infranco finally come on board, he said, they are expected to take broadband infrastructure from the ocean and connect them to the cities and hinterland across the country.
This would make internet ubiquitous in Nigeria and this would in turn impact positively on the economy, the NCC boss claimed.
On the emergency communication number, Juwah said, the three digit emergency number 112 is now working in Abuja.
On quality of service issue, the NCC EVC said the commission will soon upgrade its spectrum management and monitoring systems to ensure that there is no interference among networks which usually affects quality of service.
He said the NCC is projecting revenue of N54.4bn out of which recurrent expenditure will be N14.8bn and N12.4bn will be capital expenditure.
He added that the sum of N3.4bn will be expended on special projects while the sum of N8.4 and N8bn will be transferred to the federal government as spectrum fees and operating surplus respectively.
But speaking earlier, the chairman senate committee on communication, Gilbert Nnaji
Said though Nigeria is a global example in the telecoms milieu, the country still lag in broadband and internet penetration.
“If the aim of achieving national connectivity is to be realized, then there is need for a sustained effort by the Commission to speed up its fibre optic programmes and projects especially the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI)”, he said.