Govt issues new RoW guidelines to boost telecoms services

THE Federal Government has issued new Right of Way (RoW) guidelines that will henceforth guide the laying of fibre cables on federal high ways in the country, an effort aimed at eradicating the persistent poor quality of service in the telecommunications industry.An eight member committee set up by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, and her counterpart in the ministry of works, Mike Onolememen submitted new right of way (RoW) guidelines to guide laying of fibre cables on federal highwaysThe committee, made up of four members each from both ministries submitted the report to the two ministers at the Ministry of Works at the weekend in Abuja.According to the report submitted, the new RoW guidelines to be adopted pegs the chargeable RoW access fee for laying of ICTSP ducts and cables at N145.0/linear metre and N20.0/linear metre as yearly maintenance access fee, subject to periodic reviews at five year intervals or whenever compelling circumstances demand such reviews.The new guidelines also stipulates that henceforth applications for granting of RoWs will be will be treated and concluded within 30 calendar days. The new guidelines mandate infrastructure sharing to reduce incidents of multiple digging up of roads, which compromise the integrity of the roads. A contravention of the guidelines will lead to suspension of RoW, revocation of RoW and a fine of a N1 million a day.In her comments at the submission of the new guidelines, Minister of Communication Technology, Johnson emphasised that the collaboration and partnership between the two ministries was a demonstration of how President Jonathan's cabinet works to deliver on the President's transformation agenda.She said that the report marked a very important milestone in the quest to improve quality of service delivery in the telecoms industry and will ultimately lead to a reduction in the cost of providing infrastructure in the country.Johnson stressed that the implementation of the RoW guidelines at the federal level will lead to improved service quality and broadband penetration in the country because fibre is a key transmission element for broadband. She added that the two ministries will continue to collaborate to deliver on the Federal Government's transformation agenda and stressed the need for the guidelines to be adopted at the state level in order to ensure fibre deployment nationwide.To underscore how low fibre deployment is in Nigeria, she stressed that the United Kingdom that is one quarter the size of Nigeria has 60 times more fibre than Nigeria. She said that the communication technology ministry would continue to partner with the ministry of works to foster a holistic way of laying fibre across the country for the benefit of the industry.
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