₦airaland Forum

For Nigeria to achieve her vision of effective broadband services, the nation’s transmission backbones must align to become interoperable.

This was the advice of the Chief Operating Officer of Phase3 Telecom, Mr. Olusola Teniola, while speaking at the eWorld Broadband Forum 2012 held in Lagos recently.

He noted that though Nigeria currently has three major optic fibre backbones, they were not designed with an open access architecture in mind, making it difficult for them to work together. This situation, he noted, was a drawback on the efforts by government to further broadband penetration in the country.

Teniola stated that Phase3 Telecom envisaged this challenge and subsequently decided to design an open access network in partnership with Dancom ( a subsidiary of The Dangote Group) right from inception, currently covering over 3,000Km nationwide, adding that it is the basis for the company’s provision of services to all operators today in the Nigerian marketplace and beyond.

He added that the recent launch of 3.75G networks by some Mobile Network Operators in Nigeria suggested a mobile broadband eco-system was already in place adding that this might kick-start the development of other related services.

“With terrestrial networks already in place in a piece-meal form, these can provide the platform in ensuring speeds of 256Kbps and greater are available on devices that can support broadband applications. This eco-system is the beginning of a wider broadband eco-system that may transpire and include another range of broadband applications from the office desk or from our homes, which will complement the reach and presence of an always-on high speed internet access paradigm,” Teniola said.

According to him, this development showed that the Nigerian telecom landscape is one driven by a mobile operator’s choice of technology, innovation and investment as against the normal value chain that depicts a strong fixed line incumbent protected by a National Regulator and other licenced operators providing their services piggy-backed on a National Backbone facility.

He added that the drive to Long Term Evolution, one of the latest mobile services, demonstrates this when one considers that the broadband and next generation of the future is now demonstrating scenarios where consumers are hooked up with 100Mbps download speeds to the home.

He advised that the regulator and the entire industry must work together to define a proper programme that will show Nigeria the way, adding that Phase3 Telecom had already taken right steps with its open access fibre network.

“A broadband eco-system that relies purely on networks to evolve without careful planning is bound to fail both in terms of regulation and implementation,” Teniola stated

According to him, some level of stability at the backbone layer is also mandatory to serve as a reminder of its being a critical asset within a broadband eco-system that is not subjected to multifaceted ideas and creates more complexity in an already complex environment.