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Nigeria
Among Top 10 Telecoms Nations
With a monthly growth figure of 1.1 million new
subscribers to various mobile networks, Nigeria is now
the eighth fastest growing telecommunications
environment in the world.
There are now 57 million connected subscribers to the
Nigeria's five mobile networks of MTN Nigeria, Globacom,
Zain, Etisalat and M-tel.
In a similar development, European telecommunications
ministers have endorsed a plan to cap retail prices for
sending SMS (Short Message Service) text messages and
browsing the Internet using mobile phones while abroad.
In September, the European Union's (EU's) executive
body, the European Commission (EC), proposed slashing
both the retail and wholesale prices for text messaging
by introducing caps of 0.11 and 0.04 respectively.
Average retail prices are currently estimated at around
0.29 Euros, the commission said.
It also proposed a cap on the wholesale price for
downloading data of one per megabyte, and called for
further reductions in the cost of voice calls when
roaming.
Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, reeled out
statistics yesterday from the books of GSM Association,
the global trade group of over 700 mobile operators in
218 countries and territories.
Citing Quarter one of 2007 as a reference point, Nigeria
added 3.3 million new subscribers in three months thus
joining the top 10 on the global mobile networks.
China's 18 million, India (13.7m), Pakistan (7.6 m),
Indonesia (5.3m, Iran (5.1m), Brazil (3.8m), Argentina
(3.8m) are ahead of Nigeria.
Thailand (3.2) million and Russia (3. 2) million
complete the chart.
Ndukwe spoke in Lagos yesterday at the 9th Distinguished
Electrical and Electronics Engineer Yearly Lecture (DEEEAL
2008) hosted by the Nigerian Institution of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers, a division of the Nigerian
Society of Engineers.
In his 32-paged lecture entitled "From
Telecommunications Back waters to a Regional Hub:
Tracking the Role of the Regulator in Nigeria's Telecom
Revolution", Ndukwe said the growth recorded in the
sector has been fuelled by adequate, responsive and
transparent regulation.
Specifically, he told his audience including Zenith
Bank's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jim Ovia, who
chaired the occasion that besides the significant growth
rate recorded, the sector has raked in additional
investment in the excess of $12 billion between January
2001 and October 2008, and government alone has realised
over $2.5 billion from spectrum auction.
This is besides import duties and taxes from telecoms
companies, which have contributed substantially to the
government revenue profile.
He said the beauty of the Nigerian telecoms environment
was that it is open to competition through effective and
transparent regulation.
The opening up of the market to competition in all
segments of the industry has resulted in major drop in
prices for telecommunications services.
Pre-2001, the cost of subscription to MTel's analogue
mobile services was over N60, 000 per line. In 2001, the
GSM subscription started with a price of N20, 000 per
line and today, this figure has fallen to almost zero.
The tariff for calls on the GSM network was as high as
N50.00 per minute. Today, a call on a GSM network can be
made for lower than N25.00 per minute (mobile to
mobile).
Ndukwe said, although, it does not set retail prices,
the commission consistently monitors the prices at which
the operators offer their services to the public. In the
first instance, the commission approves all tariffs as
stated in the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, and
thereafter, monitors their implementation.
The commission, however, intervenes as necessary in
determining interconnect rates for the industry. The
combined effect of the two interconnect rate
determinations made in 2004 and 2006 was a reduction of
the mobile termination rate from about N30 to N18 per
minute in 2003 and subsequently to N11.40 per minute in
2006. This has enabled the fixed operators reduce their
retail tariffs for calls to mobile networks to as low as
N20.00 per minute. The commission will be initiating a
process for reviewing the interconnect rates in the next
few months in line with international practice.
The commission has continued to implement the policy of
licensing competitive operators in all segments of the
market. "Today, the Nigerian ICT market remains the most
competitive ICT market in Africa, with service providers
competing fiercely for market share", Ndukwe said.
The NCC is widely acknowledged as a model
telecommunications regulatory institution in Africa and
in the past few years, has played host to various
representatives from African telecommunications
regulatory authorities on study tours. It is the
commission's intention to continue to partner with the
ITU and other development agencies in furthering the
exchange of experience and expertise necessary for
global best practices regulation in the region. NCC
facilitated the establishment of the West African
Telecommunications Assembly (WATRA), which it has
continued to nurture and support, and is also very
active within the African Telecom union (ATU), and the
ITU.
With its current growth pattern and its position in
Africa, Nigeria through the NCC, remains committed to
facilitating the growth of the Nigeria's
telecommunications sector, and taking its leadership
position in telecommunications development in Africa.
Although tremendous progress has been witnessed in the
telecommunications sector, Ndukwe admitted that there
nonetheless remain numerous challenges.
"A key challenge remains the issue of ensuring optimum
quality of service (Q0S) in the networks. However, the
Commission is working assiduously to ensure that the
quality of service continues to improve significantly
within the shortest possible time. The major contributor
to the current Q0S challenges had been network capacity
constraints as the network operators had not been able
to expand their networks fast enough to meet the ever
growing demand by subscribers."
"Rapid roll out of networks resources such as base
station and switches, which should result in improved
quality of service, have been hindered by insufficient
transmission infrastructure across Nigeria, with optic
fiber and microwave transmission lines only available in
limited number. The WiN project aims at ensuring that
all the states of Nigeria are linked to the national
optic fiber backbone infrastructure", he explained.
Therefore, the commission in consultation with the
operating companies is offering incentives that will
encourage more rapid expansion of the transmission
infrastructure through the development of fiber
transmission cables.
Since 2003, over 17000km new optic fiber cables have
been installed. There is another on going project, which
involves the installation of fiber cable over electronic
power lines. This has greatly increased the long
distance transmission capacity available to support the
fast network growth.
"The commission expects that in the next two years
Nigeria will be fairly well served with transmission
capacity to support anticipated large-scale demand for
broadband, voice and data services", Ndukwe said.
"Ministers have answered the European Commission's call
for a speedy response to the SMS and data roaming
rip-off very positively," said Viviane Reding, the
telecommunications commissioner.
EU citizens sent 2.5 billion SMS messages, generating
800 million for their mobile phone operators last year,
the commission said. The cost of sending messages while
roaming can be 10 times more than sending a message from
within the home country.
Slashing this price is seen as an essential part of
creating one single European telecoms market, and an
excellent way of illustrating the merits of the single
European market to consumers.
"I am confident that with Parliament, we will ensure
that consumers travelling in the E.U. will save money
when sending texts and surfing the Web with a mobile
phone as of 1 July 2009. This would send a clear message
of consensus that the EU single market is there to serve
European citizens as well as businesses," Reding said.
Under the proposed re-drafting of the 2007 roaming
regulation, roaming customers should also receive an
automatic message with data roaming charges for the
country they have entered. From summer 2010, consumers
should be able to specify in advance how high their data
roaming bill can go before the service is cut off -- a
measure designed to put an end to what the Commission
calls "bill shocks". . .
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