{Internet and broadband have been globally acknowledged as the foundation for transformation to a knowledge-based economy. It is also widely acknowledged that broadband infrastructure is an enabler for economic and social growth in the digital economy.}

ADEYEMI ADEPETUN, in this report, examines plan by the Federal Government to wire the economy with ubiquitous broadband access. Excerpts…

THE economic impact of broadband penetration has been found to be quite impressive.

World Bank studies show, quite conclusively, that in low and middle –income countries, every 10% point increase in broadband penetration accelerates economic growth by 1.38 percentage points.

This impact is greater than in high?income countries and equally greater than the impact of any other telecommunication service.

Besides, a report conducted jointly by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology, noted that doubling the broadband speed for any economy increases its GDP by 0.3 per cent.

Indeed, the above percentage points may appear small but if you apply them to the Nigerian GDP at N40 trillion, it is possible to obtain an increase of more than half a trillion naira in the first instance and N120 billion in the second.

In view of this economic index, and recognizing the importance of broadband to a nation’s growth, the Federal Government of Nigeria has initiated a strategic move to wire the country with broadband facilities.

At the ICT stakeholders Forum with the theme: “Connected For Growth-Moving from Planning to Execution” Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, while presenting Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan 2013-2018 to stakeholders in the sector, said the Federal Government is now very serious about ensuring that broadband access reaches 80 per cent of Nigerians by 2018.

Johnson, who said government, is targeting the next five years to achieve this, noted, “the message is clear that we need to assist the private sector in driving pervasive access to broadband.

But then, the private sector must also deliver not just on basic reach and penetration, but also on quality of service for Nigerians. It is only in doing this that Nigerians will truly feel the positive impact and benefit of broadband,” the minister said.

Industry statistics on broadband penetration reveals that Nigeria’s broadband penetration is between four per cent and six per cent.

This, according to industry stakeholders, underscores the need for Nigeria to give strategic importance to the development of broadband infrastructures.

To the minister, for Nigeria to become one of the world’s leading economies by 2020, high-speed broadband networks that would provide every Nigerian with fast, reliable and affordable Internet access is a fundamental requirement.

Current status of broadband in Nigeria

Nigeria’s International connectivity landscape has come a long way from a single international submarine cable system with 340 GB total capacity installed in 2001 (SAT3) to a total of four cable systems with international bandwidth capacity of over nine Tbit/s by 2012.

This development was welcomed with a lot of optimism for the impact it promises to have on international bandwidth costs.

The country has Main One’s 14,000 km capacity cable; Glo1’s 640 Gbit/s and WACS $650 million submarine cables.

Indeed wholesale bandwidth prices witnessed substantial reduction. However all these cable landings have only one entry point into the country through Lagos State and due to inadequate distribution infrastructure and channels to areas of need inland, the cables currently have less than five per cent capacity utilisation.

According to the Presidential Committee on Broadband, chaired by former Nigerian Communications Commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, additional landing points to other coastal states will improve access and reduce the risk associated with Lagos as a single point of entry and communications failure.

Adoption and Utilisation

The Presidential Committee on Broadband identified that broadband access is gradually gaining acceptance in Nigeria but its wide adoption and utilisation remain unevenly distributed, lagging considerably among low income groups, the elderly and people living in rural communities.

According to them, the difference in adoption distribution is largely attributed to three key drivers of broadband adoption, notably: literacy, Age and Income.

For instance, the committee, co-Chaired by Visafone Communications Limited founder, Jim Ovia, said many subscribers with business and professional interest are using mobile internet dongles on their personal computers to access broadband services from their homes and offices.

The committee added that educated and working class adults are beginning to have broadband experience in their workplaces, while young students in secondary and tertiary institutions are very active online and are generally fascinated with accessing broadband services on mobile devices such as smart phones, netbooks, laptops.

Going forward, government promised to undertake three-pronged efforts to stimulate broadband adoption and utilisation, focusing on issues of awareness, affordability, and attractiveness of broadband services.

To overcome barriers associated with these three categories, government said it should embark on initiatives that target populations, which are lagging behind, and are less likely to embrace the use of broadband services without some form of training or facilitation.

Possible cost of implementation and government’s role

Going by the estimates put forward by the Presidential Committee on Broadband, Nigeria might need about $795 million (N126 billion) to ring the country’s states capitals and provide fibre cables across the country to deploy the facilities.

According to them, the cost of building fibre within cities is estimated at $60,000 per kilometre while the cost of building fibre around states is estimated at $20,000 per kilometer, stressing that this difference can be attributed to the higher number of civil works, road crossings and restoration that will be required for Metro Fibre networks.

With six geo-political zones identified in the country, the respective states were broken down by land mass into large, medium and small, which to the committee requires an approximated fibre network of 750km, 500km and 250km respectively.

Specifically, the zones were broken down into large states (750km): Bauchi, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna. The medium states (500km) includes Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Plateau, Oyo, Edo, Ogun, Cross River, Kano, Delta, Nassarawa, Gombe and small states of 250km has Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa.

Furthermore, calculations based on state categories showed that the eight states considered to be large would require 750km of fibre at $20,000, which equals $120 million.

The Medium states, which are 16, require 500km of fibre at $20,000, which equals $160 million, while the 12 states adjudged to be small require 250km of fibre at $20,000, which equals $60 million, bringing the total value ringing of states at $340 million.

The Presidential Broadband Committee, which said the average cost of laying fibre (including electronics but excluding right of way charges) in Nigeria is estimated at $60,000.00 per kilometer, noted that an average state capital (excluding Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt) shall require 250 kilometres of fibre for a metro ringed design.

By this estimate, the committee, which also has the Country Manager of Google, Juliet Ehimuan-Chinazor as a member, put the cost estimation for 33 state capitals with 250km fibre at $60,000, which equals $495 million.

By and large, the committee put the amount required for metro fibre in the 33 state capitals at $495 million, while the total estimates for all state rings will be at $340 million, it is estimated that the total cost for expanding broadband deployment in the country will be at $795 million.

“The $795 million excludes the addition of ROW fees and other project administration costs, which can lead to an equivalent amount resulting in a doubling of costs”, the committee stated.

Investigations on other climes revealed that Malaysia spent $16.2 billion on its broadband deployment; Portugal spent $1.9 billion; Poland spent $1.4 billion. Australia has ear marked $50 billion for its 12-year national broadband network programme among others.

According to them, governments at various levels have critical roles to play in the drive to have pervasive broadband infrastructure across Nigeria.

Challenges hindering broadband deployment

Operators in the ICT sector have identified the challenges common to them as: high costs of right of way and resulting in the high cost of lease and transmission; long delays in obtaining permits; backhaul capacity constraints; multiple and illegal regulation and taxation at Federal, State, and Local Government levels.

Other limitations include; damage to fibre infrastructure during road works; lack of reliable, clean public electricity supply and lack of major green energy initiatives and support.

Indeed, the Ndukwe-led committee said the key objectives of the Nigerian National Broadband plan are to promote pervasive broadband deployment, increase broadband adoption and usage, and ensure availability of broadband services at affordable prices, but noted that this plans can only be reaslised until the identified challenges are mitigated or completely resolved.

Expert view

While appreciating government’s role towards having ubiquitous broadband, the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo said government must indeed moved to remove bottlenecks hindering its deployment in the country.

According to Adebayo, an engineer, issues of multiple taxations; fibre cuts; RoW challenges among others must be adequately addressed.

The ALTON chairman called for the passage of the Critical National Infrastructure bill pending at the National Assembly, stressing that this would deter people or vandals from having unlimited access to telecommunications infrastructures.

In one her interviews with The Guardian, Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cables, Funke Opeke, said apart from the issue of multiple taxations and RoW challenges, the hydra headed erratic power supply in the country is another cog in the wheel of progress towards a through broadband regime in the country.

{The Author is Nigerian living in Nigeria}