The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has stated that it is working on ensuring that the access gaps to telecommunications services in the rural areas in the country are reduced from 20 years to about three to four years.
This was as the commission stated that it has come up with a Rural Technology Solution to bridge this gap and make telecoms services available in Nigeria’s countryside.
DAILY POST reports that the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta made this known to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, explaining that the commission was before now partnering with service providers to deploy base stations in areas without network, but that this was done at the rate of 10 locations per annum.
“The NCC in partnership with stakeholders deploys base transmission stations in those places without reach, that is access gaps. We are doing this at the rate of about 10 per annum and going by the number of access gaps, it is going to take the NCC about 20 years to bridge all the access gaps,” he said.
While noting that the rural population of Nigeria do not have the patience for 20 years without access to telecommunications services, Danbatta stated that this led the NCC to come up with ingenious ways of bridging this gap within a shorter period of time.
He said, “So there is what is called rural technology solution which we have deployed in a pilot scheme in about three locations in the country and we are very happy about this deployment even though it is a pilot one. We are in partnership with those in possession of this technology and they are here in Abuja to reciprocate the deployment beyond the pilot so that we can cover about 20 of those access gaps, then we see what happens.
“But my estimation is that we can through the introduction of this rural technology solution be able to bridge the gap in about three to four years. When you want to bridge gaps, you would need to have a spectrum and the spectrum belongs to the operators so we are leveraging on this important resources by facilitating some kind of partnership between the owners of the solutions with the operators.
“Therefore, the NCC is right there ensuring that the partnership becomes effective and I’m happy to report that most of the operators are favourably disposed to this solution.”
The NCC boss at the 84th edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament, TCP, where the commission’s Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Ismail Adedigba unveiled the theme as: ‘Improving service delivery to telecom consumers: Key to industry sustainability’, added that the topic was carefully chosen to look at the totality of issues around telecoms service delivery.
“It is instructive to note that every edition of the Telecoms Consumers Parliament chooses a distinctive but industry-relevant topic issue for discussion in a way that suggestions made and solutions proffered are utilised by the regulator in its policy formulation activities for the advancement of the telecommunications industry.”
The Deputy Director continued, “On a daily basis, the commission receives complaints from telecoms consumers about service delivery. Therefore, as a responsible regulator that wants topnotch service delivery by operators, we will continue to do everything within our regulatory mechanisms to ensure that constant improvement in telecoms service delivery is sustained.”
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