He said that the need to auction the licence was as a result of the commencement of the proposed unbundling of the country’s broadband infrastructure market, aimed at meeting federal government’s 80 per cent broadband penetration target by 2017. He added that the initiative would also boost the provision of last-mile wireless access on a wholesale basis, and address the high cost of internet access and the prevalence of poor service quality.
Dr Juwah, who presented an industry consultation paper titled: ‘Open Access Model for Next Generation Optic Fibre Broadband Network’, said “The commission will go on to auction the available 2.3GHz spectrum licence to aid last mile wireless access on a wholesale basis, and the last-mile connectivity will be deployed using wireless and fibre optic broadband.”
Early this year, three telecoms operators currently occupying the 2.3GHz frequency spectrum and other concerned stakeholders had opposed the auction of the remaining portion of the 2.3 GHz spectrum by the NCC to new telecoms operators, which amounted to 40MHz bandwidth.
They advised the commission to allot 10MHz extra to each of the three existing operators who have expressed willingness to negotiate and pay for the additional spectrum frequency. They also asked NCC to use the remaining 10MHz as guard bands to stop interference – a major technical issue significantly impairing delivery of efficient broadband services.
Ignoring the interests of the three operators that wanted NCC to allocate the spectrum licence among them, Juwah said NCC would go ahead to auction the licence since there would be Retail Service Providers (RSP), which are expected to ride on the wholesale last mile provider to offer services to homes, businesses and schools. He said the commission had explained that it has examined Open Access Model as the right approach to optic fibre transmission network deployment to create the required broadband penetration in the country.
According to him, the model would also assist in addressing the challenges of congestions, the challenges around infrastructure sharing, high cost of right of way and others.
He said “The objective of the initiative is to stimulate a new national broadband network that is not only widespread but also faster and more secured than what is available today so as to boost other aspects of the Nigerian economy.”
Juwah informed the operators that the hope of the initiative as to turn the Nigerian economy into a knowledge-based economy by 2020 through Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
According to Juwah, “The Nigerian vision 20:2020 economic transformation blueprint is a long term plan for stimulating Nigeria’s economy growth and launching the country onto a path of sustained and rapid social-economic development.”
The Open Access Model, he added, would potentially help to optimise the cost of broadband access across the nation and ensure that all operators, whether large or small have equal access to broadband infrastructure.