Events that will dominate telecoms, IT sectors this year

Broadband rollout, no doubt, will be among the most prominent events in the telecoms and ICT sector this year. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had last February issued the 2.3GHz spectrum license to Bitflux Communications Limited to roll out wholesale wireless broadband service across the country. The NCC had said the auctioning of the spectrum […]

Broadband rollout, no doubt, will be among the most prominent events in the telecoms and ICT sector this year. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had last February issued the 2.3GHz spectrum license to Bitflux Communications Limited to roll out wholesale wireless broadband service across the country. The NCC had said the auctioning of the spectrum was to expand the critical broadband infrastructure across the country.
In her speech before the opening of the bids, minister of Communication Technology Mrs Omobola Johnson said the spectrum sale would multiply broadband penetration in the country by five-fold. Represented at the event by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr Tunji Olaopa, Mrs Johnson also said the government would not accept any excuse from the service provider on the roll out of the broadband service.
Mr Biodun Omoniyi, a Bitflux director had promised after the company won the bid in 2014 that they would roll out services in the next one year, adding that it would get the whole Nigeria covered with fast internet broadband in its first year of roll out.  But Omoniyi told Daily Trust last week that the company would roll out before the end of March as all necessary things have been put in place for a successful launch. “We have not failed in our roll out plan and we have not rescinded on any of our promise. We are still within the assigned roll out plan; we will definitely meet up. We are rolling out services before end of first quarter”, Mr Omoniyi said.   
  NCC had said in December that it would issue another set of spectrum licenses to private companies within the first quarter of this year. So, if the promises are fulfilled Nigerians should be looking forward to see ubiquitous internet, beginning from this year.
Number of smartphones, devices to triple
At a time many are feeling the heat of the austerity measures, millions of smart devices are making their ways into the country. Experts predicted that volumes of smart phones sold in Nigeria may not go down because of belt tightening measures put in place by the government.
Over 10million smart devices worth $1billion (N167bn) were sold in Nigeria 2013, according Technology Distributions (TD), a Nigerian based firm who distributes smart device of notable manufacturers.
TD’s Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Chiomah Ekeh, said the figures obtained from a research conducted by one of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) would have been much higher if  the number of tablets sold had been included.
She also said these figures would likely triple in the coming years if the broadband initiative being spearheaded by the federal government is concluded.She added that many OEMs see Nigeria as a “very big market” whose deepness might not be exhausted by all of them.
“This is also what we at TD are capitalizing on”, she said, adding “we are doing our very best to come up with highly innovative products from the best OEMs to sell to our partners across Nigeria.”
What further raise the hope that more smart devices may come in this year was approval given by NCC to over 1020 mobile handsets brands to be sold in Nigeria. NCC said in October issued approval to 76 mobile devices manufacturers to ship in their more than 1020 handsets brands to Nigeria.
The brands on the list of type-approved mobile handsets released the telecoms regulator yesterday include Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, Sonny Ericson, Blackberry, Apple, Motorola, ZTE, Ericsson, Infinix, LG, Gionee, Tecno, HTC, GTide and Haier Thermocool among others
No solution in sight for bad network
Though there will be an increase in numbers of devices that will berth in the country from abroad, no any improvement in telecom networks may be seen this year. This much was revealed by NCC, the telecoms industry regulator. NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman Dr Eugene Juwah in an event in Lagos in December listed epileptic power supply, vandalism, and multiple taxation, among others, as some of the factors militating against quality telecoms service.    
Compensation may come directly to consumers
Aggrieved cell phone subscribers who have been shortchanged by the big four cell phone operators in the country may be compensated directly this year, according NCC.
NCC’s Director of Consumer Affairs, Mrs Maryam Bayi had said in November that the committee set up by the commission to look at the modalities to adopt in compensating the subscribers will wind up this month. She disclosed that NCC in collaboration with the operators will give call credits to millions of subscribers to compensate them for the losses they have suffered due to bad network.  
Reduction in number of tech entrepreneurs, students who get annual innovation grant, scholarships  
Because of the financial crunch being faced by the country, the federal government may reduce amount of money it gives annually to tech innovators to set up small enterprises across the country. Last year 16 tech innovators got 10million from ministry of science and technology to help them in setting up small scale companies.
Also, many students may have their hope of studying IT related courses at post graduates level abroad dashed this year. Last year, three graduates each from the 36 states and Abuja had the opportunity to study for their second and third degrees abroad free of charge courtesy of the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Disclosing this in Abuja at a farewell ceremony for the students, NITDA’s Director General, Peter Olu Jack had said the government decided to send them abroad to continue their education in IT related fields to bolster Nigeria’s IT industry.
   Jobs in IT sector may not be affected
Though some sectors are already jittery of the affect the global oil price slump may have on them in term of retrenchment, experts predicted that IT sector may not likely be affected as it is “mother of all sector.”  
In the last two years, more than 12million jobs were created by foreign and local companies operating in the Nigerian Information Technology (IT) sector, according to NITDA.
“It will not be out of place to infer that ICT holds the greatest promise for transforming the economy owing to the enormous potentials to drive other sectors as well as job creation”, NITDA’s DG, Jack said.
  Migration from analogue to digital TV to happen this year
This is year is the ‘D-Year’ of digital TV migration, but the question of whether Nigeria will meet the June 17 deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) from change from analogue TV to digital or not is not issue.
Presently, the migration is facing an issue in Nigeria the company that won the Digital Broadcast Signal Distribution (BSD) License is up in arms with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over what it called breach in agreement on the term of license.
Though Pinnacle Communications Limited had said it would successfully begin the first phase of migration of TV services from analogue to digital in December last year, it had failed to do so because of the crisis between it and NBC.