Still Waiting For The Telecoms Bill

Raymond Akubo

For the umpteenth time, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on the National Assembly to speedily bring to conclusion the bill that seeks to protect telecoms infrastructure as critical national assets.

The executive commissioner, Stakeholders Engagement in the commission, Chief Okechukwu Itanyi, made the call recently at NCC 2014 Legislator’s workshop with the theme:  ICT Infrastructure as Key Driver for Economic Development: What Role for the Legislature, held in Lagos.

Countdown to Nigeria’s broadband revolution

By Adekunle Aromolaran

On Monday, February 10, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced that slots of 25MHz bandwidth are available in the 3.5Ghz band in 27 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. It was further gathered that the frequency will be licensed on a state by state basis, thus interested stakeholders were advised to submit their applications. The 27 states listed by the NCC are: Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Zamfara, Taraba, Yobe and Sokoto.

With this notification, the era of broadband spectrum revolution in Nigeria has kick-started.

Hello...is GSM dying?

By Wole Olaoye

When GSM telephony was introduced in Nigeria, we all celebrated our freedom from the stagnation of NITEL. At that time there were only about 400,000 epileptic telephone landlines all over the country. Making an international call was an event of theatrical dimensions. The NITEL headquarters in Lagos used to witness scenes of comic relief.

I once had to wait on the queue for about 90 minutes to take my turn to make a call to the US. Before then I had had to listen to the agonies of abandoned wives and girlfriends pleading with their spouses/partners over faint telephone lines to fast-track the process of relocating them abroad. There were tears and sighs and moans. There was no privacy whatsoever.

Maximizing broadband for economic growth

By JUSTIN ERADIRI

Maximizing broadband for economicIt is the desire of both citizens and the state that the advancements recorded in the telecoms sector since 2001 should be consolidated beyond telephony and ancillary services.

Nigerians are looking to upgrade to a full multimedia platform, leveraging on the broadband to maximise the capacities of their smart phones and other devices in video streaming, internet radio, information download and upload, etc. Yes, we need that extra byte, that strength that speeds up our navigation and research on the web, that delivers us out of the callously slow, small and near unproductive byte allocations our GSM networks currently permit us.