NCC gives InfraCos five-month deadline to deploy broadband infrastructure

16 Dec NCC gives InfraCos five-month deadline to deploy broadband infrastructure

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has ordered licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to deploy broadband infrastructure across all LGAs in the next five months or face regulatory decisions. They are to move to site immediately.

The InfraCos, consisting of seven ICT/telecoms firms, were licensed by NCC to ensure wholesale broadband deployment across the country, especially in Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs). They have

The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said that telecoms infrastructure deployment across rural communities in Nigeria is at the heart of every effort of the government towards ensuring the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

In a keynote at the 2021 national conference, exhibition, and yearly general meeting of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), in Abuja, Danbatta stated that the vision of the Federal Government as enunciated in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020, National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020-2030) and the National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) is being vigorously implemented.

According to him, to improve Nigeria’s broadband infrastructure, NCC has divided Nigeria into seven zones, consisting of the existing six constitutional geopolitical divisions, and Lagos constituting the seventh, considering the importance of Lagos as a strategic commercial and technological hub within the structure of Nigeria’s telecom ecosystem.

“The NCC has proceeded to license companies for each of the seven zones, to deploy broadband infrastructure that will ensure speed of up to 25 megabits per second in the rural areas. Each of the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria will have an initial access point of, at least, 10 megabits per second.”

Also, to demonstrate NCC’s readiness to race at the same tempo with the Federal Government as articulated in the policy documents, Danbatta stated that the licensed companies, otherwise known as “Infrastructure Companies (Infracos), have been directed to move to site to cascade broadband infrastructure to the hinterland.”

The EVC affirmed that there is timeframe for the implementation of these projects, including the building of specialised technology centres in the rural areas to enable stakeholders to harness huge benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).