Dr Juwah

AS broadband deployment for global competitiveness continues to top development agenda of developed economies of the world, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, has made a case for an Open Access Model, (OAM) in which all Nigerian operators will have equal access to the infrastructure. Dr. Juwah initially made the case for OAM when he hosted the NCC team in his syndicate suite during the Mobile World Congress which held in Barcelona last month.Speaking with IT journalists on industry issues, he said that NCC was ready to collaborate with the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) in whatever way possible to ensure that the broadband vision which he enunciated will be realized for the benefit of the Nigerian and its citizens. Emeka Aginam of Vanguard CyberLIFE was among the IT journalists that Dr Juwah spoke with in Barcelona. Excerpts:

Right of way has been an issue in Nigerian telecom development. How can issues around it be resolved?

Instead of one payment for right of way, states and the local governments will contribute the right of way as their own equity in a partnership and in doing that, it will earn the stream of revenue, probably forever, for the life of that infrastructure, every month, every quarter. So it changes and reverses the payment structure from a one-time payment structure to a stream of revenue like an investment. We believe that by so doing, it will lower at least the cost of infrastructure build-up because instead of seeking for this up-front payment for this right of right of way, it has now become equity, investment on which there will be return. So that is one way we want to combat right of way issue. Besides, the right of way issue is not everywhere. It is only in the major cities. We are also planning to deploy infrastructure in the smaller cities where there is no right of way issues and when the bigger cities see what smaller cities are enjoying, they may also change their views about right of way because as you know infrastructure brings business. Businesses actually move from big cities to small cities if they have infrastructure. So, these are our thinking about right of way issue.

You have presented a model to the ITU Secretary-General on broadband revolution. Could you share that model with us?

Well, I have been talking about this model, called an open access model. Why it is called an open access model is that all operators, big or small, will have equal access to an infrastructure that are to be built. The problem we have had before is that big operators were the only ones capable of owning certain infrastructure end to end and thus eliminated small operators

from access. You can see monopoly issue there. It has affected the growth of broadband. So we are going to partner with the local and state government that have right of way ownership. Together we are also going to look at how technology solutions providers can come into it. Together, all of us will be forming this partnership. NCC has budgeted some funds for this. With state and local governments contributing right of way, and the technology provider financing the project with the help of contribution from NCC, this will help in building infrastructure. This infrastructure will be licensed out by NCC to what is called infrastructure operator. These are not telecom operators but an independent body that will run this infrastructure and then all the telecom operators will have equal access to the infrastructure. They can tap on the fiber on a field basis. But because NCC contributed fund to this infrastructure who have a say also to the final price of access to this infrastructure.

SABI vs OAM

NCC was pursuing a project called State accelerated broadband initiative, (SABI). Now, with this open access model, are you dropping SABI?

No. The SABI is still going on. We are just changing it slightly because big operators are involved and we want a situation where smaller operators can come in too.

But there is fear that this new idea will run against competition because this are people who have invested massively on broadband.

Which competition? Where do you see the investment in the urban areas? First of all, NCC is doing this in a neutral position. We are not competing with anybody. What we want to do is to help deploy infrastructure which will be made open to everybody. We will make it open to everybody on equal access basis. So if you are a small man, you can pay the fees. If you are a big man, you pay the same fees but we will develop a way where everybody will have his own quota. For example, the mobile operators, their growth is limited. May be you have been hearing about mobile broadband. Do you think they can do it? They cannot do it because the infrastructure in Nageia is not there. They are limited by the infrastructure. We cannot do mobile broadband. What we are doing in Nigeria is not really mobile broadband. You can call it anything but the experience is not broadband experience.

Infrastructure issues

The limiting issue is infrastructure. fThey know what we are trying to do. And quietly, they are trying to support it because they that it is of benefit to them. We are not going to discriminate against anybody. The vision is broadband deployment for national development.

Without this , Nigeria is not going to develop. Our children are going to lag behind. In India, you see that the children have a computer they call Novato which is based on a cloud computer concept. Cloud computer concept by broadband link so that in a data somewhere, they have everything. Children actually use very cheap computers to access applications, access knowledge base. This is how America is going. This is how Europe is going If we do not this, it will mean that we will continue to lag behind. We have left the issue of broadband to operators and from their own of point of view, they are profit oriented. They need help to take off and that is what we want to give them. We want to give them help. We are not competing ageist anybody. What we want to do is to create an enabling environment where everybody will gain. The mobile operators will gain. They will be able to do mobile broadband which is the growth area of mobile. The voice is stagnating .