The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has revealed that in preparation to welcome the 5G network technology and its accompanying technologies has began putting in place the necessary infrastructure
The EVC who was represented by Director Spectrum Administration, Engr. Austin Nwaulune, at a Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Emerging Technology to discuss 5G Readiness and High Altitude Platforms Stations (HAPS) Development in Abuja said NCC is also interacting with relevant stakeholders and had identified some of the potential frequency bands that may be harmonized for 5G deployment in region 1.
Therefore, NCC has suspended the licensing of those frequencies to ensure that Nigeria is not caught unawares when those frequency bands become harmonized by standardization bodies.
Also at the forum, presentations were delivered on High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) Technology as one of the emerging technologies developed to complement capacity expansion efforts to improve broadband access to both unserved and underserved areas.
High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) are stratospheric platforms that stay over a fixed point on earth for weeks to months and are expected to be the next big infrastructure for wireless communications deployment in the aerial sphere.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Communications Commission organized a North Central Nigeria stakeholders parliament with relevant agencies in charge of telecommunications at Lokoja, Kogi see to address lingering Telecom issues.
The theme of the event was “Optimizing the Benefits of Telecoms Infrastructure in Nigeria” and present at the event were representatives of telecoms-interfacing MDAs of federal and state governments in the region.
NCC Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Sunday Dare, speaking through deputy director, legal and regulatory services, G.T. Mohammed said that the stakeholders’ parliaments in various regions were designed with three principal objectives in mind.
“The three principal objectives of these engagements are; to reemphasize the immense benefits of ensuring the seamless operations of telecoms infrastructure; to better understand the peculiar telecoms-related issues that state MDAs are experiencing towards resolving them; and the third objective is to agree on a clear and actionable working plan for speeding up the deployment and protection of critical telecoms infrastructure”.
Dare stressed that the sealing up of of telecoms infrastructure, such as Base Transceiver Stations by state MDAs leads to outages, service degradation, disruptions to communications, banking, health, and other platforms, causing the national economy to record huge losses that could amount to billions of Naira.
“We must not let short-term revenue goals hamper our country’s ability to leverage technology for growth and development”, he said.
He, however, noted that previous engagements with stakeholders led to an agreement on six principles for ensuring the seamless operations of telecoms infrastructure: “Uniform Right of Way (RoW) rates and standardized review mechanisms applicable across all states; uniform approval processes and one-stop-shop agencies that will act as single interface for all site approvals and RoW within a state.
Also, stakeholders agreed, “Dig-once policies to reduce cost of roll-out and protect roads and other public infrastructure; Zero-interference commitments to ensure that legal due process will be observed and adequate notice given before any law enforcement action is taken against any service provider.
Dare also stressed that, “Telecoms infrastructure must however never be tampered with.
Other agreement reached are, “SLAs with operators to ensure that issues are timeously resolved and escalation processes for all operator misconduct, as well as effective dispute resolution mechanisms.”
Secretary of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbolahan Awoniga, speaking during the panel discussion at the event, appealed to states for understanding as operations in some states are subsidized with gains from other more viable states.
