By Prince Osuagwu
To a great extent,  the  issue of right of  way, RoW, has appeared to be the biggest threat to smooth operations for telecom operators in the country.

Although there are other bottlenecks such as multiple taxations, multiple regulation and vandalism that also challenge the smooth deployment of telecom facilities across the country, operators lament the most about the RoW.
Right of Way is the official permit that an operator needs to secure from the government to deploy its infrastructure, most especially the laying of fibre optic cables used for transmitting capacity from one location to another.

Ordinarily, the operators were not bothered about the payment of RoW, but  it  became an issue when payments had to be made at the federal, state and even local council levels with different degrees of price hike.
Over time the federal government through the Ministry of Communications Technology and the Nigerian Communications Commission, has devised means to tackle the issue but has not recorded appreciable success. Several meetings have been held with states and local governments and committees have been set, to alleviate the challenge bedeviling payment of right of way issues but the impact has been too minimal to bring respite.

However, the issue has become critical, considering that it holds the future for broadband access and penetration which the government has expressed interest in as a factor and facilitator to Nigeria’s next phase in telecom growth.
On several occasions, the operators have recounted that the country has recorded huge success in the provision of voice service to Nigerians with the current active telephone subscriptions standing at over 121 million, because the environment was enabling their businesses, but that the same success story may never be the case in the area of data or internet service if they are not allowed RoW at reasonable prices to deploy their infrastructures faster.
Official government data puts telephone penetration at over 80 percent mark, while broadband or high-speed internet penetration is still abysmally low at around 6 per cent.

Meanwhile, there is over 10 terabytes of bandwidth capacity available in the country, which are underutilized. They are mainly the international submarine/ fibre optic cables such as Glo 1, Main One and the West Africa Cable System, landed a couple of years ago but still heavily lying in the sea shores.
Besides operators cry and government interventions, several industry stakeholders, including the Chairman, Presidential Committee on National Broadband Development, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, have criticized the making of RoW a business venture by some states and governments, warning that appreciable broadband penetration in the country could be jeopardised, should federal government agencies, state governments, and local government administrators insist on high charges on right of ways.

However, three weeks ago, a major breakthrough appeared to have been made for the first time when Lagos state government agreed to reduce cost of ROW permit and other allied services by about 85 percent.
The breakthrough was the outcome of a high powered deliberation between the Ministry of Communications Technology, Lagos state government and telecom operators in Nigeria. After the meeting, the state said it has considered the tremendous impact easy roll out of operators services would make on the entire nation to come up with the reduction ratio.
Announcing the reduction, Commissioner of Science and Technology for Lagos, Mr. Biyi Mabadeje, disclosed that the State reduced taxes and levies in Lagos by over 40 per cent and Right of Way Fees to 85 percent, from N3000 to N500 per linear metre of fibre optic cable lay.

However, this was on the condition that operators agree to use approved and qualified contractors, who would ensure the integrity of the road after the fibre had been installed in the event that there was no fibre duct on the road.
There was also a ‘dig once’ policy, whereby the first operator to dig the road for fibre installation would install a duct with spare capacity for other operators to use when they wanted to install fibre instead of digging up the road again.
Already industry players have commended Lagos state, describing the new development as a win- win situation between the government, operators and the teeming Nigerian telecom consumers.

Minister of communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson said that Lagos has shown positive leadership with what it has done and expressed optimism that other states would join the new trend to make telecoms and broadband infrastructure deployment easy affordable and available to all. Also Former President, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, ATCON and Chairman, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, described the RoW permit reduction as a positive one for the industry, urging other states to emulate Lagos State in this direction.
For him, the extent to which a country embraces broadband development will determine its place in the current and future global competitiveness.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state

President, Nigerian Internet Group, Mr. Bayo Banjo also noted that the reduction can only make significant meaning if all hands would be on deck to make the economic imperatives of ubiquitous broadband access count on every Nigerian citizen and ensure that with it every state gets a revenue boost through positive growth occasioned by high-speed internet access on businesses.

Moreso, many of the operators have confessed to have latched on the magnanimity of Lagos State, to embark on massive deployment of services in the state.
But the extent to which this will reduce the number of dropped calls, poor internet service and offer value for money has remained the question of every telecom consumer.

However, the popular view seems to favour a speedy government mobilization and sensitisation on use of available telecoms services to grow the small and medium businesses, scattered across the country, to truly drive the win -win benefit of this development home.