We’re yet to issue LTE licences – Juwah

By PRINCE OSUAGWU

EXECUTIVE Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, last week said that the commission had not given licence to any operator in Nigeria to do LTE.

The EVC, however, explained that though operators can do LTE on the platform of the 2.3Ghz licence which they already have, it was not as if there was no licence meant specifically for LTE services.

According to him, the commission, deliberately did not want to issue licenses on this platform because it needed to see that 3G services were properly deployed by the operators and the potentials fully harnessed by users before joining the next service level.

Juwah’s explanation was a fall out of questions by ICT journalists in Lagos, on how operators can be assisted to deploy cutting edge services like 4G LTE in the rural areas to help transform their economies.

He boasted that he wanted his regime at NCC to be remembered for allowing services achieve full potentials before lumping another one on the users, thereby creating opportunity for half baked services.

Interaction with ICT reporters

Juwah, who exuded much confidence as he interacted with ICT reporters for the first time since he assumed office as NCC EVC six  months ago, said that as a thorough professional, he believed in allowing users to understand every technology and personally analyse what benefits such technologies can give them before bombarding them with another.

He said the time to issue licences for LTE was only when the commission was convinced that users had grown accustomed to the 3G services and needed services that offered more. This is even as he noted that his explanation was not to condemn those who have taken pains to go extra miles in providing the services.

Juwah noted: “Please understand me, I am not saying that 4G-LTE can not be deployed by operators now on the platform they already have licence for, but that would only mean doing it on the frequency that it is not internationally specified for. Besides, doing LTE on the 2.3Ghz would cost the operators more. We have not issued license for LTE. You can agree with me that even 3G has not been fully harnessed here.”