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NCC to issue licences for fixed broadband services

By BusinessNews Staff on October 8, 2013

The Nigerian Communications Commission is in the process of splitting the country into territories for the purpose of issuing licences to operators who will provide fixed broadband coverage to subscribers.

The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said this in Abuja on Sunday at a news conference he addressed alongside the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, Mr. Tim Unwin.

According to Juwah, the country will be divided into territories and the operators will be required to bid for the territories they are to provide with broadband Internet coverage. The bid will either be held before the end of the year or early in 2014.

Fixed telecommunications services had taken the back seat since the introduction of digital mobile services in the country in 2001.

Juwah also said the fixed broadband project would be a partnership between the government and the private sector, adding that the government was tired of waiting for the operators to go into the project on their own.

He said, “You can only do mobile broadband up to a point without having fixed broadband. We have come to that point in Nigeria today. You need to backhaul your data. The problem we have in Nigeria is that we have a preponderance of microwave backhaul in our system and this has created a huge percentage of quality of service issues.

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