The year 2011 is fast coming to an end. The year was full ups and downs. It is a year the untamed Boko Haram menace threatened the country's co-existence and peace. However, for the ICT sector, there are more gains than losses. ADEYEMI ADEPETUN and BANKOLE ORIMISAN in this report chronicles the events that made the news in ICT in 2011.THE year 2011 has been a remarkable one for the Information and Communications Technology sector in Nigeria. Besides been a decade of Nigeria's ICT revolution, it is a year the agitations for the creation of an ICT ministry became fruitful. The Federal government bowed to the pressure and created the Communication Technology ministry. The following are some of the high points of the year:SIM RegistrationThe ICT sector started the year with the call on Nigerians to register their Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards for security reasons, given the spate of various unrests and criminalities in the country. It was hoped that, such data collected would help security operatives to check the increasing security lapses. The regulator (NCC) had frowned at the pace telecommunications firms in the country, including MTN, Globacom, Airtel, Etisalat, Starcomms, Visafone among others went about the exercise in the early stages of late 2010 to early 2011.NCC's Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah in an interactive session with journalists in Lagos in February, revealed that only about 28 million Nigerians in a country with an estimated figure of about 85 million connected lines were then registered by the telecommunications operators within the periods, a figure he described as not only abysmally low but very unsatisfactory.By so doing and after much arguments and brick walls, the commission secured the National Assembly's nod for its proposed N6.1 billion budget for the SIM registration exercise. The commission appointed independent consultants to jump starts the registration across the six geo political zones of the country side by side with the operators, but limited to yet to be registered lines only. The NCC fixed six months for the registration exercise. It started on March 28 and ended September 28, 2011.However, after the expiration of the exercise and with the discovery that about 45 per cent of Nigerians are yet to be registered and risked disconnections, coupled with several calls for extension by bodies including the Association of Licenced Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON); National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS); MTN Nigeria, the regulator bowed to pressure, and came up with what it called harmonization period and gave an indefinite extension to the exercise.According to NCC's spokesman, Reuben Mouka: 'The harmonisation process will involve the collation, reconciliation, cleaning and consolidation of the captured data into a central data infrastructure for efficient management of Nigeria's subscriber data base. Within the limited period of the harmonisation exercise, service providers will be directed not to disconnect any subscriber on account of the registration until the commission announces the completion of the process after which those who remain unregistered will be disconnected.'The registration also heated up the telecommunications space, as operators came up with different incentive packages to woo subscribers. These includes; MTN's N1 billion SIM registration promo; Globacom also came up with its own N1 billion promo. Others including Etisalat, Airtel were not left behind as they also offer different promos and free airtime for subscribers who registered within the period of the exercise.The Guardian had reported recently that despite the SIM registration exercise, there were observed increases in poor quality of service, fraudulent text messages among others, but both the regulator and operator, which adduced to this fact, claimed to be working on the shortcomings. But only time will tell!Decade of GSM revolution and Strict RegulationNigeria in August celebrated 10 years of telecoms revolution in the country. From a paltry figure of about 400,000 lines as at 2000 to over 90 million as at October 2011, with an investment of about $25 billion and jobs were created directly or indirectly in the last 10 years.According to former NCC's helmsman, Dr, Ernest Ndukwe, the success witnessed in the last one decade in the sector has been partly due to the autonomy of the regulator.Besides, Juwah, during an interaction with ICT journalists issued a six-point agenda, which, he intended to use to uplift the sector during his term in office. These includes; consolidation and integration of mobile services, fixed line and broadband deployment for national development; enhanced competitive market, enhanced choices for the consumer, vigorous compliance monitoring and enforcement of regulations and directions, national connectivity for accelerated growth and enhanced international relations.On regulation, NCC started with the issuance of stern warning to operators not to take consumers for granted and followed it up by wielding its big stick on erring operators who were operating without permission on unlicensed spectrum and the sale of pre-registered SIM cards. Cobranet and Globacom were penalised by NCC in 2011.NCC did not take lightly the poor quality of service rendered by GSM operators and towards last quarter of 2011, it warned that it would punish any operator that failed to improve their service quality. Infact, the big three, MTN, Globacom and Airtel were knocked by the regulator for their poor service offerings and told to improve or face stiffer penalties.Broadband PolicyFollowing demands from various stakeholders including the media, NCC stated that it would come up with a national broadband policy that would ensure that broadband penetrates to all parts of the country. It followed it up with Broadband Investment meeting in Geneva, Switzerland during the ITU World Summit.NCC also announced the adoption of an open access model for the deployment of broadband across the country. According to Juwah, the adoption of this model was to forestall current challenges posed by some operational issues and the complexities arising from roles of different agencies, including urban and regional administrative setups, which impinge on the right of way of facility deployments.A major attraction to the strategy, as indicated by the NCC boss was that government would offer subsidies to enable broadband services to the under-served and un-served areas of the country where it may not be economically viable to deploy fiber and the strategy would also ensure that investors made decent profit.Also to stimulate response and channel appreciable investment to the sector, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in collaboration with Business World media organized the Broadband investment forum.According to ATCON's president, Titi Omo-Ettu, this was among other things put up to stimulate and seek stimulus package for operators.Creation of ComTech ministryThe yearnings of Nigerians were assuaged by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan with the creation of the Ministry of Communications Technology bringing agencies like National Information Technology Development Agencies (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone Plc, NCC, Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), and NIPOST under the new ministry.However, the desire of certain stakeholders for government to merge NCC and national Broadcasting Commission (NBC) was not fulfilled.Mrs. Omobola Johnson, a former managing director of Accenture Nigeria who was appointed as Minister of Communications Technology brought together all the stakeholders in the industry, while presenting a roadmap for the sector, she canvassed for a collaborative efforts to take Nigeria into the digital economy. According to her, Nigeria's expectations by 2015 was to achieve 12 per cent broadband penetration, 80 per cent mobile penetration, two per cent fixed line growth, 34 per cent internet growth and 12 per cent PC penetration.Calls for sector's bail outThe ICT sector in 2011 also witnessed several calls on government to bailout the sector, due to collapse or what was perceived as imminent collapse of some of the operators.In fact, ATCON through its president had hinted that about 45 per cent of IT companies that started well 17 years ago, had gone under due to harsh business climate, government policy on regulations and the hydra headed issue of multiple taxations among others.ALTON's president, Gbenga Adebayo seriously canvassed bailouts for telecom operators especially the CDMAs. The operators were challenged by incessant disruption of cables by construction companies, inability to meet targets on deployment of towers and base station due to multiple regulations from governments at all levels.In his reaction to bailouts, Juwah had said that the affected operators were yet to present to government their cases, adding that the challenges could probably had been from mismanagement by some of the operators.Launch of NigcomSat-1RIn the course of the year, precisely on December 19 and at exactly 5.40 pm in far away Xichang, China, Nigeria returns to space. Nigeria's replacement communications satellite NigComSat 1R was successfully launched into space. The Communication satellite, a baby of NigComSat Ltd was launched on a Long March 3B (LM-3B) launch vehicle from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, in South West China.The launch was conducted according to the NigComSat-1R Contract signed by Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT LTD.) and China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC). The NigComSat-1R is a replacement for the Nigeria Communications Satellite 1 (NigComSat-1) that failed in orbit in 2009.The Minister of Communications technology, Johnson described the launch of the satellite into orbit as a milestone in the history of telecommunications in Nigeria. To the managing director, NigComSat Ltd, Timansaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, 'this is mission fulfilled.'IT (Hardware and Software)Nigeria added more computers, as more Nigerians got access to the Internet, mostly through their mobile phones. The year witnessed rise in consumerisation of smartphones and tablets computers. 44 million Nigerians were able to connect to the internet up from 10 million and it is expect that the number would go up to 50 million by the end of the year. Mobile operators introduced various smartphones, iPads and tablet PC's bundled with Internet data. At the open market, well-established mobile phone makers competed for the attention of Nigerian consumers with products from China and India.In the course of the year Zinox computers remains number one in the country, beating brands like HP, Acer among others. In fact, the Zinox computers supplied largest percentage of computers and the Direct Data Capture machines employed by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the 2011 general elections.During the process, NYSC members and other Nigerians were trained on the usage of computers and others, by so doing increasing computer appreciation in the countryThe software market is still dominated by foreign software, especially the banking sector. But efforts by Associations including the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), app developers are beginning to focus attention on the need to support local software development in the country.ConclusionBy the end of 2011, mobile subscription is expected to near the 100 million mark in Nigeria and forecast is also expected to channel more investment to the sector. The regulator is expected to be more apt with regulations, while the ministry of Communications Technology should start the process of deepening the gains of the sector that would pave way for betterment of the industry in 2012 and beyond.
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