NCC restates commitment to infrastructural sharing in telecoms sector

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated that it has long recognised the imperatives around the sharing of critical resources within the telecoms industry, particularly in relation to recent engagements on regional roaming with the ECOWAS.

This, it said, was underscored by the commission’s recent guidelines and framework, leading to emergence of colocation and infrastructure sharing entities such as tower companies that rest on this premise.

The commission has also concluded its framework and further facilitated the test run on national roaming and active infrastructure sharing to further galvanise efficient roll out through a well-coordinated network optimisation and expansion strategies.

According to the NCC, with the commencement of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the role and criticality of data centres become increasing overwhelming.

This is underscored by the kind of efficiency derivable when critical resources are shared at costs far significantly smaller than the actual costs of setting up such resources from scratch.

It, therefore, provides a veritable platform for greater productivity and the attendant national competitiveness for businesses and public sector entities to effectively harness the opportunities to be unlocked from the estimated $1.2 trillion latent treasure within the AfCFTA continental block through its 1.3 billion people.

This was part of the keynote address by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, at the fourth Telecommunications Sector Sustainability Forum, held in Lagos recently.

The EVC was represented at the event by the Head, Tariff Administration at NCC, Dr Sunday Atu.

He said, “The NCC recognises the place of broadband infrastructure and technology in interconnectivity and its impact on national development, increased content and social inclusion.

“Policy and regulatory initiatives had been geared towards public investment in broadband backbone networks through harmonisation of RoW charges and the allocation of more spectrum for existing mobile and 5G technologies.

“With the recognition of the new place of data within the ecosystem, the commission had proactively taken steps leading to an active functioning market that brought about competition and improved quality of service, with appropriate regulatory measures to guide the industry in determining a cost based transmission trunk link rates and mobile access networks.

“We have also carried out extensive assessment of the broadband value chain, including the analysis of market features such as ecosystem mapping, pricing, technology, regulatory climate and competition.

“These efforts have led to reduction in data prices in the mobile sector including rapid expansion of non-voice service portfolios that created new revenue streams for network and data centre operators.

“Infrastructure outsourcing and collocation that created a positive impact on operators’ profitability with increased expansion to underserved rural areas towards increased user experience and greater data capture and more spectrum release for 5G services to further lower costs of providing mobile broadband services.

“Additionally, the recent conclusion of the framework and licensing of Mobile Virtual Network Operators represents another big bang in the industry after the launch of GSM in 2001. This is expected to engender greater expansion, more reach and additional choice to consumers in addition to enhanced service uptake on data centre operations.

“Digital platforms are expected to rapidly expand and stimulate the digital ecosystem across e-commerce, banking, education, entertainment, health and government. There has also been increased rollout of fibre infrastructure across metropolitan areas, especially fibre-to-base stations required to support the surge in bandwidth demand.

“Clearly, data centre operators are not immune to the overwhelming challenges confronting the industry that ranges from digital literacy, poor power supply, multiple taxation and regulations at different levels of government as well as the recent deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector and the attendant subsidy removal, coupled with the exchange rate harmonisation.

“The transformation in the Nigerian macro-economy, underpinned by developments in the broadband space such as subscriber growth, improvements in digital literacy and the proliferation of relevant content, all point to positive fundamentals for the broadband landscape in Nigeria.

“These factors combined with the increasing global recognition of broadband as a critical infrastructure and socioeconomic tool for national growth present an imperative for Nigeria to sharpen its focus on broadband development and increasing support for data centre services in Nigeria.”

Danbatta reiterated the that mainstreaming of “data centres require the collective efforts to take our own destiny in our hands through individual and sectorial supplementary feeds and enabling supports that ensure data centres not only operates to guarantee national digital sovereignty, but are able to prioritise contents reflecting our cultural norms, contexts and ideological values, while reaping the attendant socioeconomic benefits within the value chain.

“The commission will continue to facilitate and support its licensees, as major stakeholders, to continue to explore additional frontiers of expansion and greater opportunities for investment within the data centre space, while also ensuring strict adherence to data protection regulations.”

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