Inadequate last mile infrastructure has hindered efficient Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) broadband deployment in Nigeria.The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ALTON) that revealed this, said though the country’s broadband penetration has hit and surpassed the 30 per cent target, it has however not been evenly distributed.
Speaking in Lagos at a forum on broadband deployment in Nigeria, organized by technology journalists, Chairman, Technical Committee, ALTON, Aremu Olajide, who represented Gbenga Adebayo, the Association Chairman, noted that less than two per cent of houses in the country are fibre connected.
While decrying the hostile business environment in the country, Olajide said efforts must be made to ensure that there is even distribution of bandwidth so as to fast track development across the country. According to him, states have failed to buy the idea of smartcity “because they don’t even understand it and that it is beneficial to them. They don’t know that the more base transceiver stations built and smart initiatives launched, the better tax revenue to be generated.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reaffirmed its commitment to ensure that the provision of broadband infrastructure across the country achieves last-mile connectivity. The Commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, represented by Dr. Henry Nkemadu, Deputy Director/ Head, Special Intervention Projects, stated that Commission will ensure the provision of broadband infrastructure across the country to achieve last-mile connectivity.
According to him, “The communications sector is a catalyst that would provide the needed infrastructure that will enable other sectors of business, education, health, agriculture, governance and Finance to thrive.“The importance of this sector has continued to enhance human capabilities such as healthy life, knowledge, creativity, collaboration, innovation, self-organisation and participation in the social, economic and political life of the country as well as impact on economic growth through productivity gains.”
He also revealed that the commission’s activities have impacted on efficient improvements in service delivery. Danbatta explained that telecommunication acts as an enabler to drive socio-economic growth, developments and modernisation across all sectors of the economy.
He added that robust and reliable telecoms service lies on adequate broadband infrastructure which will provide the needed impetus to achieve last mile connectivity.Also speaking at the event, Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Group, said the future of Nigeria rests on technology.
Ekeh who was represented by the Head of Corporate Communications, Zinox, Gideon Ayogu, stressed the need for the Federal Government to give more attention to technology and innovations, as these are what define the world today.
“There is no better time than now for the country to support technological innovations because that is what the world is using to make significant relevance. If you check the leading five companies in the world today, you will discover that technology companies to the list.”
During his goodwill message, Managing Director of Rack Centre, Dr. Ayotunde Coker, said that cloud technology will transform Nigeria and Africa if we deploy it in sachet format.He described Nigeria to be running what he called a sachet economy, where the citizens buy things in sachet form, stressing that deploying cloud in sachet format will ensure that it gets to the citizenry easy and faster.
https://guardian.ng/technology/alton-puts-fibre-to-home-connections-at-2-in-nigeria
