ManXTreme:

Monopoly. Have you ever heard of the term monopoly, this is not to say, that is entirely a bad thing, but when NITEL (first national carrier) and GLO (second national carrier) are placed in one individual hands, what now is the reason for calling it national carrier?
Yes NITEL has become a liability, but for the sake of Nigerians,make NCC stronger otherwise, i can beg that within 2 years of operation, we would be paying the highest telecoms bill in the continent (check out Cement prices under the national carrier - Dangote)

Idrico:

It's better to give it to a Nigerian company than selling it to foreigner who are out to exploit us.

PointB:

This is not a good idea.

Glo is and Nitel and both National Carriers.

Selling Nitel to Globacom will create and another unneeded monopoly.

ManXTreme:

Monopoly. Have you ever heard of the term monopoly, this is not to say, that is entirely a bad thing, but when NITEL (first national carrier) and GLO (second national carrier) are placed in one individual hands, what now is the reason for calling it national carrier?
Yes NITEL has become a liability, but for the sake of Nigerians,make NCC stronger otherwise, i can beg that within 2 years of operation, we would be paying the highest telecoms bill in the continent (check out Cement prices under the national carrier - Dangote)

ManXTreme:

Monopoly. Have you ever heard of the term monopoly, this is not to say, that is entirely a bad thing, but when NITEL (first national carrier) and GLO (second national carrier) are placed in one individual hands, what now is the reason for calling it national carrier?
Yes NITEL has become a liability, but for the sake of Nigerians,make NCC stronger otherwise, i can beg that within 2 years of operation, we would be paying the highest telecoms bill in the continent (check out Cement prices under the national carrier - Dangote)

LeoMax:

The Feds is finding justifiable reason to "make us believe" that Mike Adenuga is the better option. Feds, you dont need all that grammer and excuses, you dont even need to speak grammer. All you have to say is, we prefer giving it to the son of the soil with Jonathan taking backdoor 10% of the company . We will understand. Afterall, na we we. Glo is our glory, Mike Adenuga is our hero !!!

pinkrex:

Monopoly emphasis is killing me. why can't we hope for the good sometimes. The government can always intervene if the market becomes excessively monopolistic. What are the NCC's and other monitoring agencies for?

The decision to give it to Globacom despite the fact tha[b]t some other firms like Brymedia, the third place bid winner of the terminated bid and other firms were offering double what Globacom is offerings [/b] was because it will turn the ailing entity around for the benefit of Nigerians.

PointB:

Why does Government need to intervene to curtail the excesses of a monopoly, when it shldn't be creating any at all. The reason Glo was given a Second National Carrier status was to break Nitel's monopoly., hence there is no need creating another. Between government intervention and market forces, I choose market forces.

From the news
Now if these other companies show evidence of technical competence why not concentrate on them rather than glo. By the way, Glo has been in Ghana for over 5 years without rolling out a single line. Are they not overrated, even though that is beside the point?

pinkrex:

What are you saying? If glo is the second national carrier aside Nitel and with their market competition competence, why cant they be an Indirect merger between the two companies especially when its owned by the same person with the same drive? Indigenization is also a commiserate development for a growing nation. It cant always be capital flight because either way, we lose.

PointB:

The term - National Carrier is pregnant with a lot of meaning. And that is where the monopoly lies. If Glo were to buy Nitel, then another company - Airtel or MTN should be given National Carrier (whatever that entails) status. Otherwise, Government will be creating unneeded monopoly.

pinkrex:

It is a national carrier not because its owned by the Govt. but because its owned by a Nigerian citizen.

goggs:

Giving NITEL to Globacom is wrong on the following reasons;

(i) Glo is the 2nd National Carrier and therefore cannot combine the two. Even if Glo were a public company its not right in the spirit of competition. The way Adenuga runs glo (his children barely out of their teens as directors) cannot be acceptable in running Nitel. The whole of Nigeria's national carrier infrastructure in the hands of one man? Where in the world is this done.

(ii) With the rumours of IBB having a piece of the glo pie, is this political settlement? The political backlash is too distracting

(iii) Glo as 2nd National carrier has NOT rolled out its fixed and Terrestrial network 6 years after getting licence to do so. The terms of 2nd National carrier licence is very clear on the establishment of fixed and terrestrial network, special call services (emergencies etc), provision of national telecommunication backbone infrastructure, ASDL lines, FWA etc. There are also penalties for non compliance but the  NCC has kept mum, yet this guy wants to grab this.

(iv) the argument that a Nigerian should run the network is ok. But I think service delivery and competition should be the watch word. If we want Nigerians involved then part of the condition for the sale of NITEL should be that it must be listed in NSE and not less than 60% of the company must be public. Its quite easy to set the rules and monitor them for good results, but in Nigeria simple things can be made extremely complex. that doesn't mean we shouldn't try

PointB:

The crux of my point is that, the advantages of being designated as National Carriers should not be left in the hands of same man, same management, in the name of different company. It is called monopoly.

Monopolies do not favour consumers!

goggs:

Giving NITEL to Globacom is wrong on the following reasons;

(i) Glo is the 2nd National Carrier and therefore cannot combine the two. Even if Glo were a public company its not right in the spirit of competition. The way Adenuga runs glo (his children barely out of their teens as directors) cannot be acceptable in running Nitel. The whole of Nigeria's national carrier infrastructure in the hands of one man? Where in the world is this done.

(ii) With the rumours of IBB having a piece of the glo pie, is this political settlement? The political backlash is too distracting

(iii) Glo as 2nd National carrier has NOT rolled out its fixed and Terrestrial network 6 years after getting licence to do so. The terms of 2nd National carrier licence is very clear on the establishment of fixed and terrestrial network, special call services (emergencies etc), provision of national telecommunication backbone infrastructure, ASDL lines, FWA etc. There are also penalties for non compliance but the  NCC has kept mum, yet this guy wants to grab this.

(iv) the argument that a Nigerian should run the network is ok. But I think service delivery and competition should be the watch word. If we want Nigerians involved then part of the condition for the sale of NITEL should be that it must be listed in NSE and not less than 60% of the company must be public. Its quite easy to set the rules and monitor them for good results, but in Nigeria simple things can be made extremely complex. that doesn't mean we shouldn't try

And how many base stations do you have in your network in Nigeria?

We have over 5,400 base stations fully operational today, which means that all the 5,400 stations are in operation. About 1,000 base sta- tions are also under construction, so on a monthly average, we com- mission about 200 base stations in addition, both for capacity as well as coverage. In the next five to six months we should have up to about 6,300 base stations in Nigeria.


What about your transmission infrastructure?


Our transmission infrastructure is predominantly fibre. We have fibre all across Nigeria which should be about 8,000 kilometres plus. We are still laying fibre. Currently we are laying fibres cov- ering about 1,300 kilometres, so we have a huge transmission infra-

structure in fibre. We also have facility available on the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), which is the microwave and all our fibre routes are on rings, big- ger and smaller rings which will ensure that even in the unlikely event of a fibre cut, we should be able to carry traffic normally because rings are very critical in our production and we ensure that we create as many as possible to ensure that there is no outage in the event of a fibre cut. We are on Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH), we are on fibre and we are on SDH as far as our transmission is concerned.


Globacom is the second national operator, yet it has not been able to deploy a fixed line network, why?

We have deployed fixed lines in Nigeria and you will be surprised if you know our capacity as far as fixed lines in Nigeria is concerned. The entire presi- dency uses Glo fixed line, State Security Services work on Glo fixed line, First Bank uses Glo fixed lines and so many customers use Glo fixed line. Yes, it is not a big
retail product but we have so many customers on our fixed line net- work that has been operating for so many years.


What about the reach, are you satisfied with the reach as it is presently?

We are here in Lagos although certain parts of Lagos cannot be reached for now. The problem with a fixed line net- work is that you need a lot of approvals to dig the road, to lay the fibre and to cover the road back. It is a huge task because you have to deal with different governments. You have to negotiate before you can do all these. Another challenge with fixed line is that if I want to install a fixed line in your residence, it means I have to run cables from Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island to wherever you are. It means we have to run the cable through a long distance and this will cost us much.


So you mean it is not as profitable as a mobile network?

Because of the right of way, the cost is very high. It is not standardised. I think what the operators want government to do is to come up with standardised fees by allocating a particular amount to the federal, state and local governments. Our experience is that when you get to a state, the government will ask you to pay and by the time you reach a local government, you are also asked to pay indiscriminately. So in the absence of a policy on this, the operator won’t be able to calculate his returns. You will not be able to say if you lay a thousand cables along a particular area, this is what you will pay and this is the rev- enue expected, that is a huge bottleneck. But in spite of that, we have rolled out in Ibadan, Kano and Lagos. So we are try- ing to do whatever we can to live up to expectations as a second national opera- tor.

pinkrex:

Who else amonst d indigenes went for the bidding?

So what are you suggesting?
Im only defending this becAUSE i'mnot so pessimistic as others.

[s]The decision to give it to Globacom despite the fact that[/s] some other firms like Brymedia, the third place bid winner of the terminated bid and other firms were offering double what Globacom is offerings[s] was because it will turn the ailing entity around for the benefit of Nigerians.[/s]

PointB:

lol. I am not pessimistic either. They are discussing with other interested party, but keeping glo on their radar.

My suggestions have been made earlier, but let me reiterate.

1. They should consider the other firmsThere is no guarantee that glo will deliver. They have not delivered in Ghana after 5 years of incursion.

2. If they finally, sell Nitel to Glo, then they need to correct the imbalance (monopoly) by awarding the Second National Carrier license to another operator.

That's what I said.

PointB:

^^- There are four or thereabout.

MTN, AirTel, OneTouch, Tigo (all GSM), Kasapa (CDMA), and Glomobile (Work in progress since 2006)

   Spectrum unavailability, review of guidelines delayed Globacom’s operations in Ghana – Minister

After Globacom was handed the license to operate as the fifth telecoms company in the Ghanaian market for a fee of $50 million, there was an unavailability of spectrum for the Nigerian company to start operations in Ghana, says Ghana’s Minister of Communications.

In addition to this, the review of regime guidelines for the citing of telecoms cell sites by Ghanaian authorities for the purpose of assurance on structural integrity of masts also affected the early deployment of Glo.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu attributed these reasons to why the telecoms company, owned by Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest person according to Forbes Magazine could not start operations in Ghana as expected.

According to the Minister, at the time Glo was issued a license August 2008 to operate in Ghana for a fee in the region of $50 million, the spectrum available for use by Glo was unavailable. “Glo was licensed August 2008 and again at the time that Glo was issued a license for a fee in the region of $50 million. The spectrum for Glo was unavailable on the 1900 megahertz,” he revealed in an interview on TV Africa’s Bare Facts last Tuesday August 23, 2011 which was monitored by ghanabusinessnews.com.

read the rest at link below

http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2011/08/29/spectrum-unavailability-review-of-guidelines-delayed-globacoms-operations-in-ghana-minister/

goggs:

Giving NITEL to Globacom is wrong on the following reasons;

(i) Glo is the 2nd National Carrier and therefore cannot combine the two. Even if Glo were a public company its not right in the spirit of competition. The way Adenuga runs glo (his children barely out of their teens as directors) cannot be acceptable in running Nitel. The whole of Nigeria's national carrier infrastructure in the hands of one man? Where in the world is this done.

goggs:

(ii) With the rumours of IBB having a piece of the glo pie, is this political settlement? The political backlash is too distracting

goggs:

(iii) Glo as 2nd National carrier has NOT rolled out its fixed and Terrestrial network 6 years after getting licence to do so. The terms of 2nd National carrier licence is very clear on the establishment of fixed and terrestrial network, special call services (emergencies etc), provision of national telecommunication backbone infrastructure, ASDL lines, FWA etc. There are also penalties for non compliance but the  NCC has kept mum, yet this guy wants to grab this.

goggs:

(iv) the argument that a Nigerian should run the network is ok. But I think service delivery and competition should be the watch word. If we want Nigerians involved then part of the condition for the sale of NITEL should be that it must be listed in NSE and not less than 60% of the company must be public. Its quite easy to set the rules and monitor them for good results, but in Nigeria simple things can be made extremely complex. that doesn't mean we shouldn't try

LeoMax:

The Feds is finding justifiable reason to "make us believe" that Mike Adenuga is the better option. Feds, you dont need all that grammer and excuses, you dont even need to speak grammer. All you have to say is, we prefer giving it to the son of the soil with Jonathan taking backdoor 10% of the company . We will understand. Afterall, na we we. Glo is our glory, Mike Adenuga is our hero !!!

nateevs:

There is nothing to state that Glo cannot "combine the two" - if that means anything at all. Bottom line is Glo will become "The National Carrier" . . A national carrier is simply an establishment who has the physical infrastructure to route network traffic to every corner of the nation. There is, as far as I know, nothing to show that "National Carrier status" is reserved for a few. It's a colossal amount of investment, especially for a country as big as Nigeria. Any company can attain this status if there is the will to invest. MTN makes shed loads of revenue and can invest in this if they want to. There's no monopoly as far as I am concerned.



Till date, it is a rumour. A rumour that has no bearing on the workability of the project.



Do you think it's that simple to lay cables across the country. It has got to be a gazillion times more expensive and more complicated to deploy than it is to deploy a wireless network. Note all things they need to take into consideration, many of which would have been much easier in advanced countries.

Glo has to consider Urban and National Planning - present and future. . . . . . Glo has to make sure Julius Berger will not be laying a road few years from now across a Fibre route. Glo has to make sure Omo onile will not sell land reserved for future network expansion. Glo has to make sure that road network cabinets will not be destroyed. . . and several other things I cannot make up in my head now. Taking Nigeria into consideration, there are no laws protecting Glo from vandalism. Anyone can pick up a digger and make a tunnel anywhere they desire. How has the Government helped to forestall this? Can Government guarantee anything?  And we haven't even started speaking of the sheer amount of work to deploy the network assuming all external conditions are favourable. It's not child's play man.



This talk of monopoly is over-played. Listing Nitel on the NSE will do nothing to the operations of Glo. Glo will charge a base rate for bandwidth leasing. Glo will also charge a base rate for leasing a fixed-line. For data over fixed-lines, you don't have to be with Glo. MTN, Etisalat, Starcomms et al, can all route traffic over Glo's internal National network as long as the Government through NCC goes a step further in establishing and enforcing a Local Loop Unbundling process. Those who have deep pockets (Dangote, MTN) and don't want to use the LLU can go ahead and apply for a National carrier license and build their own local loop in phases.




From a technical stand-point, my opinion is that it is the best thing to happen to Nigeria in recent years. Nitel already have the last mile infrastructure. Network road cabinets, telephone exchanges etc, Glo will not have to replicate. There's ahrdly any neighbourhood in Nigeria that doesn't have Nitel wires with Kites hanging off of them. Glo only has to revive this infrastructure, a far less expensive venture than replicating theirs - a cost they would have passed on to we potential customers.

From an economic stand point, it makes the overall start-up cost for Glo a lot cheaper than anticipated. The cost which will inevitably have been passed on to us is suddenly reduced. And many homes will be able to ask for and have installed high speed internet before long.


Win win scenario for every one.

[/quote

I so respect your issue on this matter, you have shown greatness in thinking. You had the time and brain work properly utilised.

I don't see no reason why we can't have the most powerful man in Nigeria controlling our economy instead of this pot bellied politicians.

and besides people like Bill gates never had limits; hence regulatory agencies are they to check his excesses.

Because we have being strucked by unfortunate dramas in the past doesn't mean we should totally blind fold ourselves from a way out of trouble,



More jobs, no capital flight, easy to be regulated by Nigerian agencies, more economic opportunities and prowess to compete with international companies. The positives are so enormous!!!