Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola
Johnson and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC) have decried the huge cost of laying fibre optic cables (OFC), adding it
was a disincentive to investment and a threat to deepening broadband
penetration.
The minister who spoke during a
plenary session at the ongoing Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
(CTO) 53rd Council Meeting and 2013 Forum taking place in Abuja, said for every
$1 spent on OFC, between 60 and 80 pence goes as cost of access.
She said this punitive cost of
access could make the rather expensive mobile broadband adoption to be in use
for a long time, adding that this cost must go down for cost for broadband
access cost to go down and become ubiquitous for everyone.
According Mrs Omobloa, global
internet access has attained the 40 per cent mark while in developing countries
the story is still nothing to write home about.
“Global Internet penetration rates
have continued to increase and almost 40 per cent of the world’s population are
now online. However, the numbers of people connected to the Internet are fewer
in developing countries than in more industrialised ones.
“One of the priority areas of this
Forum is to assess the different stages of broadband development and discover
best practice strategies for moving forward; and is a topic that will be
instructive in increasing Internet penetration rates in developing countries.
According to her, while an
increasing number of countries, including Nigeria, have recently developed or
are developing National Broadband Plans; countries that had done so earlier
(such as the United Kingdom) provide important opportunities to learn about the
implementation of such plans. These countries provide valuable insights on what
works and why; as well as what can be improved upon and what to avoid during
implementation
The importance of driving affordable
broadband access in the country, she disclosed is underpinned by the fact that
of the 25 million users of FaceBook in the country, more than half are age
below 25 years of age. She said this could be turned to advantage in the light
of the limitless opportunities available through internet connectivity which
could only facilitated by making the cost of access to the internet cheap.
Dr Juwah said there is need for
sustainable policy to drive accelerated broadband penetration in the country to
allow a large number of the populace to tap into the huge opportunities the
internet has provided.
He said the national broadband plan
has incidentally provided the template for the methodology that will be adopted
be it private sector-driven or wholly public sector-driven or a “partnership
led by the private sector.”
He said this is important for
deployment to both areas that are economically viable and those that are not.
He said the regulatory approach will be multi-dimensional and will engender
free and fair competition.
According to him, the strategy must
include a framework that will accelerate broadband access through open access
model guided with “proactive enforcement” to discourage anti-competitive
practices
The minister and the EVC said the
incentives available through the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) will
continue to be used in driving broadband penetration, adding that government
will also explore other ways to incentivise the operators.
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