Ericcson's Vice President and Country Manager for Ghana, Alan Triggs, spoke with ADEYEMI ADEPETUN during his visit to Nigeria on how network society initiative from Ericsson could boost innovations and economic growth in NigeriaTHIS Ericsson's Networked Society, what is it all about and how does it translates to economic growth for countries, such as Nigeria'We believe that anything that can benefit from being connected should be connected, that is exactly what we see as Networked Society. We have spent over 100 years now connecting places and about 25 years connecting people and with over five billion mobile subscriptions in the world and we shall spend the next decade connecting things. We foresee a situation of having a global 50 billion connected devices. It is a projection for 2020. And this could be connected to range of platforms. We foresee cars being connected, buses connected, trains, devices at home, and electricity meters connected, so anything that can benefit from being connected and that is our vision.Looking at this Networked Society, what impact or benefits will this bring on Nigeria's Cashless Society project'When you talk about cashless society, one important part of connected society is Mobile Money. We have seen successful stories in the likes of Mpesa in Kenya and we hope to see it replicated in all parts of Africa soon. We are going to be working with MTN on mobile money solutions for the years ahead. So our solutions are already tailored to meet future needs of the people and that will be a great transformation in this part of the world.One major problem in Nigeria in terms of connectivity is infrastructure decay, bandwidth shortages. How do you intend to cope with this with the Networked Society Campaign'Of course, there is need for power. Government needs to invest more on power if the economy must grow. Then, we can also look at it the other way round in terms of the connectivity by connecting the power system. We see for example in Italy, where we manage and measure their entire meter remotely, which has remained very functional. And we see pre-paid metering system in Africa and that is a technology solution. All of there can help in manage and use power more efficiently.Regarding the bandwidth, the thing I found quite amazing and I talked about at a seminar recently is that Africa is now getting connected to the undersea cable. In the last four years, we have seen approximately 74 folds increase in bandwidth capacity and not just the capacity increase but competition has also jumped up.Previously, there was monopoly in the cable system with one operator, but we now see as many as five cables getting connected in Africa. In Ghana, there has been 40 per cent reduction in bandwidth price last year. This is enormous and is because we see competition now on the connectivity. Now that we have the cables, we need to build the infrastructure that will take the capacity to the land. We still suffer from poor bandwidth connections.From Accra to Lagos, there are complaints about our networks connections. So lots of investments are still needed to be able to affect the economy positively and spring up the connectivity. That apart, there has been improvement in broadband connection in Nigeria.You just talked about bandwidth connections; the problem in Nigeria is that of last mile connectivity. Is there anything this Networked Society can play in that regards'Well, if you look at what we are doing with some government. For example in Johannesburg, we've rolled out already 900km of fibres for that city and is a government initiative, because they see it and know the importance of such.Do you advise Nigerian government to take a cue from this'We advice all governments on such things. This is because; investment in this infrastructure is going to pay off in so many ways on the economy. The fact remains that all economies can't develop at the same rate, but looking at the impact of broadband on the economy, whenever there is 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration that correlates to about one per cent in GDP. So this is not just benefit for telecoms industry, this is the bedrock for all other aspect of the society. Be it Healthcare, transportation, you need this infrastructure.Looking at this Network Society initiative, how do you intend to leverage the available bandwidth in Africa to achieve this project'Let me say this in two ways. Firstly, when you say leverage, the infrastructure has to be there first before you can achieve that. So the connectivity too must be there and without it, there won't be solution for a networked society. That is where we need to see broadband rollout outside the sea-shores and that requires both private enterprise investment and public sector investment.So, once this connectivity is there, there will be rapid development, job creation, economic growth among others, with other industries leveraging on it for growth. The connectivity has to be there, broadband expansion, and then this can be leveraged for growth.Have you been able to sell this initiative to the Nigerian government'There is no such initiative with Nigeria today. We have done it with the City of Johannesburg. We heard that partnership with them now for a while and like I said, we have rolled out about 900 kms of fibre and that is a great measure of development, which even the Mayor of Johannesburg spoke about.What I'm saying are you waiting for government to come up with such an idea before you advise or tell them of such a solution'No. We talked to government across Africa promoting what we can do. We can bring the solution to technology and makes this work. But there has to be some support from the political environment on how to develop the economy. This is because, they must believe in the initiative before it can materialize. The political environment needs to understand the place of broadband investment and the benefit that will accrue to them.Have you noticed that lately in Nigeria'I can say for now but I do notice across Africa the interest from all government in what more can be done to expand broadband growth. Most government, like the NCC here have a vision for broadband expansion across the country.What informed Ericsson's decision in network society and what does it stand to gain'Ericsson has been doing business for the past 136 years and we started as a company repairing telegraphic equipment and moved from telegraph to fixed phones and voice communications. Two decades ago we entered into digital communications and later moved into mobile technology and presently we are into mobile broadband, data and Internet access. Now we are looking beyond people in the future through connected devices. It is an evolution and we keep on looking for new area of investments that will move economies forward.What role will smartphones play in mobile applications'Several roles I tell you. If I take up my Smartphone, I can see a number of applications that I have downloaded, and almost all are free, which allows me to be connected easily, which is a typical example of how smartphones can connect me to a whole wide world. So there are numerous things we could do with our smartphones. There are wide range of information that one could be connected to, using the smartphones.What is your projection of technology development in Nigeria'I see huge potentials that would drive technology development in Nigeria and with the coming of subsea cables. I see rapid growth in bandwidth penetration and connectivity. Ghana has about 23 million people with over 20 million mobile subscriptions. There is huge growth for mobile subscription in Africa and I see Nigeria at the top of it all.
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