FG’s broadband plan hits the rock as licensed firms fail to roll out services

Inaugurated in September 2012 by former president Goodluck Jonathan, the 14-man broadband committee co-chaired by a former Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and a former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Ernest Ndukwe was given three months to complete its assignment.After the committee submitted its report in 2013, the former  […]

Inaugurated in September 2012 by former president Goodluck Jonathan, the 14-man broadband committee co-chaired by a former Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and a former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Ernest Ndukwe was given three months to complete its assignment.
After the committee submitted its report in 2013, the former  minister of communication technology Mrs. Omobola Johnson,  then inaugurated the Broadband Council, which was to implement the roadmap of the national broadband plan.
The council was made up of 19 members and was chaired by the minister and was charged to work on implementation modalities for the approved Nigerian National Broadband plan for the period 2013 – 2018.
 The terms of reference of the Broadband Council included providing periodic reports on the progress of the plan, facilitating the coordination and collaboration of the various stakeholders during plan implementation, ensuring that relevant agencies, institutions, and the general public are actively engaged.
Where necessary the council shall highlighting adjustment areas where needed in the execution of the strategy and roadmap.
The council was also charged to work out appropriate ways at getting most Nigerian cities and villages covered with broadband internet.
The Jonathan-led government said it believed that making internet available all around Nigeria would boost business and increase the wealth of Nigerians.
One of the ways identified by the council was for the government to give more private companies spectrum licenses to deliver broadband services to Nigerians. Some firms were therefore licensed by NCC to carryout broadband services.
Bitflux was given the 2.3GHz spectrum license in early 2014 to roll out broadband services across Nigeria while IHS and MainOne were licensed as broadband Infrastructure Companies (Infracos) to lay appropriate infrastructure for broadband in some states in the country.
But the companies have failed to commence services many months after their licenses, making Nigerians wondering if the broadband plan has not been abandoned. 
The company that got the spectrum license, Bitflux Communications Limited, said its roll is being delayed because of harsh economic situation in the country. 
It is not clear as at the time writing this report yesterday whether the NCC will revoke the license granted to Bitlfux and award to Glo, the runner up during the bidding process.
There was no official comment from NCC yesterday but a source in the commission said the change in government is preventing the commission from taking any decision on Bitflux’s case.
NCC had said early this year Bitflux should roll out before April or face dire consequence.
The federal government had earlier told the company when presenting the license to it last year that it would not accept any excuse from the service provider on the roll out of the broadband service.  
Bitflux, a consortium of VDT Communications, Bitcom Systems and Superflux International limited, got the 2.3GHz license after defeating Globacom in the keenly contested February 2014 bid process conducted by NCC.
Mr Biodun Omoniyi, the managing director of the company had  told Daily Trust in an interview in January that the company was still within its assigned roll out schedule giving to it by NCC.
He had said 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.  
But another quarter has begun and the company’s presence is yet to be felt in the broadband market, threatening the broadband plan of the federal government.
 Given the reasons why the company found it difficult to commence business on time,  Omoniyi had told journalists in Lagos recently that the harsh business environment in the country, which also affected the stock market, adversely affected its rollout.
“Yes we were excited when it was announced that Bitflux won the licence last year, and the excitement is still there because the opportunity is still great, but the issue with the 2.3GHz spectrum licence is that it is an infrastructure build out that requires massive rollout of infrastructure across the country, and it has not been easy with us because of the harsh economic climate that we experienced last year”, Omoniyi said.
“Left to us we would have rolled out in third quarter 2014, since we won the licence in first quarter 2014, but the investment climate of the country was not friendly at all last year. Infrastructure project like the 2.3GHz spectrum is capital intensive, so the business environment must be friendly enough to do business before we can start rollout. Because it is capital intensive, we needed to burrow money from other sources and we cannot afford to invest people’s money in an environment that is unfriendly. This is part of the reason why we could not rollout last year,” he added.
Now business environment is beginning to be friendly and we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, which means there is hope for rollout of the 2.3GHz spectrum infrastructure this year, he assured Nigerians.
Omoniyi who explained that the rollout would be in phases, said Bitflux would begin rollout with Lagos, from where it would spread to other states of the federation. Initially we thought we would have had a massive rollout last year, but for the harsh business environment.