NCC meets with MainOne, IHS on broadband subsidy

Subsidy agreements that will ensure the smooth take-off of the already licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos), MainOne, and IHS are currently being finalised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
  
This was made known by the Director of Spectrum Administration at NCC, Austine Nwaulune, in Lagos, at the West Africa Convergence Conference (WACC 2017), organised by Knowhow Me.
  
Nwaulune, who spoke on, “Broadband Targets and Convergence: Regulatory Focus on Nigeria’s Broaband Needs for Emerging Technologies,” noted that Broadband demands from citizens are growing by the day as technologies converge.
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He explained that the subsidy agreement is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme in the provision of price regulated broadband services in Nigeria.
 
He reiterated that MainOne, and IHS have been licensed to provide InfraCo services to both Lagos, and North Central, saying the licensing of the remaining five zones; North-East, North-West, South-East, South-South and South-West are in the pipeline.
 
Nwaulune said the subsidy agreement with MainOne, and IHS is being done in a way that would facilitate affordable access to more than 30 million Nigerians as part of the agenda to speed up Nigeria’s broadband target for 2020.
  
The NCC director explained that the Nigeria’s Internet presence is heavily depended on mobile services. “As at today, Nigeria’s Active Mobile Broadband Penetration has reached 21.8 per cent relative to less than 10 per cent two years ago. Percentage of Broadband Internet Penetration has reached a milestone of 47.44 per cent with about 93 million people having access to Internet. The current teledensity stands at 99.93 per cent.”
  
According to him, broadband within the Nigerian context is defined as an internet experience where the user can access the most demanding content in real time at a minimum speed of 1.5Mbits/s (NBP).
 
“By 2020, Nigeria will have a large, strong, diversified, sustainable and competitive economy that effectively harnesses the talents and energies of its people and responsibly exploits its natural endowments to guarantee a high standard of living and quality of life to its citizens.” Part of Nigeria’s Broadband Vision (Vision20:2020), under the National Broadband Plan (NBP), is to be among the top 20 World Economy by 2020.
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