Mr. Johnnie Coleman is the new Chief Technical Officer of Main One Cable Company Limited. He spoke to ADEYEMII ADEPETUN about the exigency of government intervention in deepening broadband penetration in Nigeria, Main One''s quest for accelerating broadband deployment across West Africa, and other germain issues. Excerpts:FROM the perspective of a network planner, what are the cost implications of laying submarine cable into Nigeria'As you are aware, the cost of the Main One Cable project totaled $240 million, a majority of which went into the construction of the submarine cable system, the Cable Landing Stations in Lagos and Accra, our Point-of-Presence in Saka Tinubu, in addition to the terrestrial fibre backhauls, to deliver the capacity from the landing point to the business district over 30km away.Several other countries have gone beyond merely growing the broadband network and taking it to the rural areas and are now looking at the various applications and platforms through which broadband benefits can be harnessed. Why do you think Nigeria is far behind in this'Nigeria is behind because the principal requirements for providing reliable communication services are not in place! The lack of an effective distribution platform, unreliable electricity supply and the frequently disrupted infrastructure are part of the reason we struggle for a basic reliable and affordable Internet service. Once these are resolved, the opportunity will present itself for more offering in terms of the applications and so on.Despite these hurdles there are several initiatives with varying rates of success, some of these include Internet Banking and financial transactional payment platforms. A reliable and affordable communication service will see the development of more advanced services including entertainment (Video on Demand), business driven platforms (Video conferencing, Voice Over IP, hosted business applications), among other IP services.In Nigeria, huge investments are made in infrastructure development and broadband services only by private companies. Why is the case like this and what could be done to accelerate government''s intervention in provision of infrastructure in the hinterland'The high investment in communications infrastructure by private companies in Nigeria is due to the virtually non-existent or under developed public infrastructure. The very high levies of regulatory agencies on Right of Way (for fiber optic infrastructure build), averaging 50 per cent of the total drive build costs to the roof. The lack of cooperation from companies who have invested in such infrastructure leads to a duplication of investment and results in high costs of services.A stakeholders'' forum with the telcos and the regulatory agencies as major participants, under clearly stated directives and alignment with the National Communications Commission''s drive for broadband penetration should lead to a cost-effective and investor-friendly environment for companies willing to invest in communications infrastructure.Infrastructure share policies and agreements will also help investors'' recoup on their investments and provide commercial propositions, which will dissuade duplication of communications infrastructure. The development of national assets where plausible, as part of a strategy to improve communications in Nigeria could provide a nationwide carrier backbone in a Public Private Sector Participation (PPP) model.These have been seen to be effective in other countries, as it has significantly reduced communications infrastructure build costs for private companies and improved the communications infrastructure to serve a wider market from voice operators, the hospitality industry, Internet Service Providers, the financial community on to the media companies, among several others.Even with the recent landing of Main One''s $240 million and Globacom''s $800 million submarine cables in Nigeria, limited availability of bandwidth, coupled with high cost of internet accessibility still persists. What exactly is the problem, and what could be done to improve the situation'The simple response is the long haul and last mile delivery! Inadequate infrastructure, high cost of building the desired fiber optic backbone networks (due to an unmatched regulatory environment), high costs of running operations due to the unreliable nature of the electricity supply plus the lack of high capacity distribution networks regionally and nationwide (just to mention a few) has led to a bandwidth glut at the landing points but an ineffective and high cost of delivery to the consumer.This has also led to the consumer applying the wrong technology/delivery platform to the wrong use purely based on the unavailability of the desired services. Corporate bodies have been seen to use shared infrastructure/services instead of dedicated services and Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are seen to use solutions meant for single users all in an attempt to access the Internet.In addressing this we need an effective, high capacity, reliable and cost effective nationwide communications backbone allowing access to different states and cities, redundant metro fiber optic networks backed with microwave communications and a reliable supply of electricity.However, this must be in tandem with a supportive regulatory environment. The fore-mentioned will provide the various Service Providers with the much-needed platform to deliver a reliable and cost effective service. The economies of scale will yield returns for these Service Providers, allowing over a larger number of subscribers in contrast with today''s operations of revenue from the ''reachable' segment of the target market.
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