96% of subscribers get poor Internet services ? Experts - The Punch

Telecoms tower

Experts have said that 96 per cent of Nigeria?s over 105 million subscribers do not enjoy Internet/data services owing to the country?s poor quality telecoms service.

The Chief Executive Officer, MultiLinks and the CEO designate, Starcomms, Mr. Dem Elesho, in a recent interview with our correspondent, said only four per cent of the country?s mobile subscriber base actually get satisfactory data service either from the mobile network operators or Internet Service Providers.

?Only about four per cent of Nigeria?s over 100 million enjoys stable and adequate data services.

?These services are necessarily fast, reliable and efficient.?

Elesho said the best of Nigerian mobile networks were challenged and could not offer quality data service.

He further said, ?People up and down this country want to be connected. What do they want to be connected to? They want to be connected to the worldwide web for various transactions, information databases and commercial as well as? e-commerce sites. But today, the best of our networks are challenged in making that delivery and what we have is an opportunity to put together the technical ingredients or building blocks in which to create a data connectivity network that can satisfy or more than satisfy the urgent demand.?

Already, quality of voice and data services has been very poor lately, causing serious network congestion and eliciting susbscribers? complaints.

The Nigerian Communications Commission had recently responded to this with a ban on all promos and lotteries by GSM networks in the country.

In view of this, Elesho explained that Capcom, which owns MultiLinks and other ICT assets in Nigeria, would be injecting $210m into Starcomms because it saw huge opportunities available in the area of data services.

?We see about 96 per cent catch-up to do in terms of data services if you take four per cent from 100 per cent. This also means there is a huge opportunity for the new Starcomms to roll out 4G mobile broadband,? he said.

Though over 40 million Nigerians are said to be connected to the Internet and facebook, telecoms analysts said consistent subscribers? complaints were a major pointer to the fact that less than one per cent of them could actually boast of being offered fast and reliable Internet connectivity.

Despite the huge broadband capacity available on Nigeria?s seashore courtesy of the Main One Cable Company, Glo 1 and WACS, the country?s broadband penetration level is still abysmally low at six per cent.

As such, Information and Communications Technology experts, who gathered at the Africa Digital Forum and Awards 2O12, described the country?s six per cent broadband penetration as very low.

They had attributed the country?s slow broadband growth to challenges such as interconnection issues, Right of Way, barriers to deployment, multiple taxation, and multiple regulation.

These challenges alone, they reasoned, could frustrate the country?s journey to ubiquitous broadband Internet availability.

The former NCC Executive Vice- Chairman, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, recognise that ICT and broadband had become very crucial in the daily lives of the people. They, however, observed that many states in the country had yet to embrace the power of ICT.

They thus urged governments at all levels to liberate the people through the use of ICT.

Ndukwe said, ?With the level of Internet bandwidth at Nigeria?s shore, the consumption level is at six per cent, if demand is not increased, ICT companies providing broadband may go moribund.

?There is the need for creation of awareness to the masses, especially the youth on the importance of broadband, as this will further enhance advocacy to the government.?

Ndukwe and Ajayi called for regulatory intervention, through the establishment of ??Broadband Intervention Fund??. The Fund, they argued, would encourage more service providers to go into broadband delivery, thereby creating more infrastructure and increasing access.

With this, they said more competition would ensue and access cost reduced.

While the issue of broadband infrastructure continued to permeate all industry?s discourses, they said it was important not to lose sight of the importance of? content creation required to maximise broadband availability.

Apart from the universal licences,? they said that regional licensing would lead to speedy roll-out of broadband connectivity around the country.

They added that it should be made mandatory for service providers to connect to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), so that the country?s traffic would remain local, thereby saving cost.

A working group is also being formed to have a follow up and a constructive engagement with government and other stakeholders on the need for more broadband penetration across the country.

Source: http://www.punchng.com/business/technology/96-of-subscribers-get-poor-internet-services-experts/

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