In the wake of difficulty expressed by Nigerians who surf the internet various needs, Alexander Chiejina writes that investing in the extension of broadband infrastructure to criss-cross the country will go a long way at improving broadband internet services in Nigeria.
The computer age is one era that has been greeted with lots of inventions and display of human ingenuity which has revolutionised the global society, economy and technological systems. However, over the past century and a half, important technological developments have created a global environment which draws people across the globe closer and closer together.
The Internet, as an integrating force, has melded the technology of communications and computing to provide instant connectivity and global information services to all its users. This tool has no doubt made significant impact in the business world with applications such as e-commerce, online banking and e-payments, e-health, e-learning and e-government rapidly evolving. While some older people still struggle to embrace this emerging trend in ICT, most individuals across the globe can’t even imagine life without it.
However, as Nigeria continues in its quest to become one of the 20 leading economies by 2020, stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector are concerned about the current level of internet connectivity and penetration in the country. This is backdrop of speedy broadband penetration which experts believe is critical in nation building.
While some school of thought are of the opinion that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecom industry regulator, is not doing enough to encourage providers of fibre optic backbones that have since landed their submarine cables at the country's shores, others believe that improving broadband penetration will go a long way at increasing internet access in the country.
Speaking recently to Lanre Ajayi, Immediate Past President, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Ajayi revealed that last mile connectivity would make the difference as it will allow for broadband availability and penetration if operators are encouraged to take broadband to all nooks and crannies of the country. Ajayi noted that there is over 60 million telephone access and 20 million people have access for internet in Nigeria today which is a wide gap.
According to Ajayi, “The question to ask then is what about the people in the rural areas, are they not Nigerians? And how you will know that we are doing pretty well in the area of internet connection is when you compare the number of people who have access to internet to the number of people who have access to telephone services. We should not forget that the internet enables us to do more things than the telephone. Don’t forget that you can make phone calls on the internet, Voice over IP. How come that these people making calls on phones cannot have access to the internet. How can broadband accessibility be fast tracked in this circumstance?
“There are three segments to internet delivery: The international link, national backbone and the last mile. On the international link, we seem to be making some progress with the landing of Main One and the Glo 1. We now have three cables including the Sat 3 cables. Some others are still coming even as people have started foreseeing the possibility of gloat. The next one is the national backbone.
That is the fibre cable that will link all the major cities together. Some progress has been made but they are not good enough. I think that is where a whole lot of job is required to be done now. Then the last mile; this has to do with the connection between the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) institutions to homes and institutions. That one is the easiest part but we are having some challenges in that area. That area is better done by wireless spectrum. In doing this wireless technology, we require spectrum and our spectrum management,” he concluded.
Lending his view, Genevieve Anemelu, an IT expert at Zenith Bank, Lagos, stated that It is no more news that poor internet service is one of the major problem confronting Nigerian internet users (either for business or personal use). Anemelu stated that one can image when one have to wait several minutes to load a webpage.
According to Anemelu “If you use dial up services like GSM and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA networks), they have their problems. The situation is this-it is either the internet service speed is terribly slow or too expensive or a horrible combination of both. These service providers are busy trying to out-do each other with adverts and promos, instead of concentrating on their core areas – quality service delivery and ultimately customer satisfaction. A solution to improved internet access is by having a broadband internet access in the country.”
Taking a cursory look at moves made by IT firms at improving broadband penetration in the country, it will be recalled that it was until 2009 that the national fixed-line provider Nitel was the major gatekeeper for international bandwidth provision to Nigeria with its SAT-3 undersea cable, which it holds along with 35 other providers from around the world. In July 2009, damage to the cable caused massive disruption to Internet access across the country, with 70 percent of connections affected.
Going further, in September 2009, the Glo-1 cable, owned by Second National Operator and mobile market number two, Globacom, made land at Lagos, and started rolling out services at the end of 2009. The Main One cable, owned by Nigerian firm Main Street Technologies, which stretches from Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana arrived Nigeria in June 2010 and began operations in July 2010.
In October 2009, mobile market leader MTN announced that it was joining with ten other operators in the West African Cable Systems (WACS) cable project, connecting South Africa, Nigeria and the UK. It was set to commence operations in December 2010. France Telecom’s African Coast to Europe (ACE) cable will connect Nigeria to France when it starts operating in 2011.
With firms erecting structures for broadband platforms and as the number of people online in Nigeria continues to grow, International Telecom Union (ITU), the world telecom regulatory body had tasked Nigerian government to drive broadband penetration in the country, insisting that broadband is the digital right of every citizen. This is because there are unlimited opportunities on the internet for Nigerians to tap into.
For Emmanuel Ekuwem, Immediate Past President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Nigeria would achieve speedy development in 2011, if the country embrace broadband internet to its fullest. According to him, broadband internet access would enhance efforts at job creation, wealth creation and poverty alleviation.
“ICT will accelerate our meeting of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will engender an overall national economic growth and development. We will all gladly experience an ICT-based increase in our GDP. Who will not be happy to see a creative explosion of a feeling of national rebirth and well-being among the citizens of Nigeria? All these good things can only be possible when we have a ubiquitous availability of broadband services in Nigeria,” Ekuwem disclosed.
FACTS
Internet Usage Statistics:
23,982,200 Internet users as of December/2009; 16.1% of the population, according to International Telecommunication Union -ITU
Latest Population Estimate:
149,229,090 population for 2009, according to Census Bureau
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