WorldStage Newsonline-- The Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Nigeria had its own share of successes and challenges as the year 2011 comes to an end.

Despite the unsolvable poor quality of services on the mobile phones' networks, it is still gratifying to state that the sector witnessed tremendous growth and new developments in the past 12 months. Some of the remarkable events that shaped 2011 include; Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card registration; creation of Ministry of Communications Technology; the launch of the country’s replacement satellite (NigComSat IR), Mobile Number Portability among others.

CREATION ON COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY MINISTRY

The outgoing year witnessed the creation of Ministry of Communications Technology with the main responsibility of designing appropriate policies and implementing such policies for the growth of ICT sector in the country. President Goodluck Jonathan created the new ministry after many years of agitations by stakeholders for a supervising ministry to co-ordinate, facilitate and drive the development of the ICT sector. The appointment of a core IT professional of repute who was also a former Country Director of Accenture Nigeria, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, as a minister to oversee the affair of the new ministry was described as a welcome development by stakeholders in the industry.

LAUNCH OF COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE NIGCOMSAT- 1R

It was during the last month of the year that a new replacement satellite NigComSat IR was successfully launched into the orbit in China to help boost bandwidth capacity. The satellite, promoted by Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), was launched on a Long March 3B (LM-3B) launch vehicle from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, South West China. The launch was conducted according to the NigComSat-1R contract signed by NIGCOMSAT Limited and China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC).

The NigComSat-1R is a replacement for the Nigeria Communications Satellite 1 (NigComSat-1) that failed in orbit in 2008 due to anomaly in its south solar array. The project was carried out in collaboration with over 50 NIGCOMSAT engineers who spent more than two years in China.

Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai described the launch as “mission fulfilled.” He disclosed that the satellite, covering Central, Western and Southern Africa, Central and Eastern part of Europe as well as some areas of Mid-Asia, would be used solely for communications, broadcasting, distance learning, broadband, multimedia and navigation services.

On the benefits of the satellite, Ahmed-Rufai said NigComSat-1R is expected to improve the relevant national infrastructure of Nigeria and benefit people within its coverage.

“NigComSat-1R will promote the economic and technological development and social progress in neighbouring countries, especially the sub-Saharan African countries, and shall contribute substantially to the improvement of livelihood in the region,” he said.

“The NIGCOMSAT is the foundation for building a knowledge economy. As a government, you use satellite communication to galvanise your people into action; to preach the agenda of self-determination. If you are able to do this, the developmental process will be very speedy. India has over 26 satellites, 10 of which are for communication and the others for remote sensing. The major objective is to be part of the information super-highway.”

SIM CARDS REGISTRATION

As part of efforts by Nigerian Communication Commission to assist security agencies in tackling crimes and by extension to enhance the security of the state; facilitate the collation of data by the commission about phone usage in Nigeria; enable operators to have a predictable profile about the users in their networks and for the NCC to effectively implement other value added service like Number Portability among others, in March this year, the commission flagged- off a six –month SIM registration exercise that was planned to come to an end in September, but was extended to enable those who have not registered their SIM take advantage of extension period.

The Head of Media and Publicity, NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka stated at the end of September deadline for the SIM registration that the commission had commenced the collation and harmonization of all existing registered SIM cards from across the country, following the completion of the exercise in September, adding that for those subscribers who were yet to register before the expiration of the September deadline, a new window of opportunity was open for them to do so within the limited period of the harmonization exercise , however, the head of media did not state the time frame for the collation and harmonization exercise .

NUMBER PORTABILITY

As parts of measures to implement Mobile Number Portability in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) used the outgoing year to prepare ground for the commencement of the MNP by licensing consultants that will assist the country in the implementation of the proposed policy which is expected to take- off in the second quarter of 2012. The Number Portability will allow phone users to switch from one network to another without losing their original numbers. Also, the MNP if eventually implemented will give room for stiff competition among service providers to improve on their networks with a view to retaining and attracting customers on their network.

“Number portability is something that is very good for us because one of the barriers that we have to date is that there are a lot of people that want to switch to our network, but they are still attached to their old numbers. With number portability, landscape will change,” Director, Brand & Communications, Etisalat Nigeria, Enitan Denloye said during the year.

ADDRESSING POOR QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS)

There were also some challenges in the ICT sector in the outgoing year but the most obvious and worrisome among them was the unsolvable poor quality of services on the mobile service providers’ networks.

In 2011, telecoms sector experienced drastic boom as subscribers grew from 88.4 million in December 2010 to 93.9 million as at the end of September 2011 while teledensity equally grew from 63.11 to 67.09 during this period. About 23,000 base stations were deploying by telecommunications operators across the country during the year, but in spite this, telecoms consumers continued to battle with dwindling quality of service both for voice and data services.

In the course of the year under review, it could be recalled that NCC threatened to sanction MTN, Globacom and Airtel over service quality issues by barring them from adding new subscribers if key performance Indicators set for QoS were not met. The major three GSM operators were then given till November 30, 2011 to improve on their networks or face the wrath of the telecoms regulatory body. However, following the outcome of a network audit that established varying levels of improvement by the affected service providers, the regulator decided to drop the sanction threat.

According to the Executive Vice- Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, “Etisalat and Visafone have been consistent in their improvement towards good quality service provision, while Airtel recorded a significant improvement for the last quarter; Globacom, Starcomms and Multi-links have shown noticeable improvements. MTN and Zoom mobile have shown slight improvement.”

MOBILE PAYMENT TAKES-OFF

Another interesting development in the telecomms sectors is the proposed Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) policy to drive financial inclusion and promoting a ‘cash-less’ economy.

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Stanbic IBTC Bank have partnered giant Telco, Globacom to offer mobile payment (m-payment) services on the Glo network. MTN Nigeria has also teamed up with Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) and Fortis Mobile Money to launch a mobile payment and remittance service, expanding banking services beyond traditional bank branches. The partners have put an emphasis on the new service’s possibilities for financial inclusion, in addition to opening up wide ranging benefits and value added services to corporate, small and medium enterprises and individual users. Mobile payments and person-to-person money transfers are projected to become some of the most used mobile applications in many countries in the next two to three years.

AGITATION TO TAKE TELECOM COMPANIES TO THE CAPITAL MARKET

The House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market demand for the listing of major telecoms companies on the stock exchange was another notable development in the sector in the year under review. However, the umbrella body of telecommunications companies in Nigeria, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) kicked against this move, saying such could hinder Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the country.

Altogether, the outgoing year could be said to be remarkable in ICT sector, but telecoms subscribers are still looking forward to see great improvements on quality of service in 2012.

Story by Oladipupo Akinwumi (dipson4real3@yahoo.com)