The prohibitive cost of obtaining ‘Right of Way’ (RoW) permit has for long been identified as a major setback to the growth and development of Nigeria’s telecoms industry. The permit is a legal instrument allowing operators to deploy infrastructure on federal or state roads at a fee.
According to the Managing Director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, (IXPN) Mohammed Rudman, operators face difficulty in obtaining ‘Right of Way’ permit.
He said: “Right of way which is a government permit to dig and lay fibre infrastructure for transmission of bandwidth and likes is too expensive.”
According to him, the current variations in the cost of bandwidth in the country as where the commodity lands at the country’s shore for $150 per megabyte base on 155Mbps while the undersea cable operators sell to Tier 2 operators who are telecommunications companies and ISP at $300 who in turn sell to distributors for between $1000 and $2000 per megabyte.
“Broadband is still at rooftops because of frequent fibre cuts due to sabotage and other projects such as road construction,” he added.
