Public inquiry on Nigeria’s spectrum roadmap 2025–2030, 60GHz multi-gigabit systems and 6GHz Wifi-6 guidelines begins - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has commenced a public inquiry to gather industry input on three key regulatory instruments expected to shape Nigeria’s broadband future, reports ITREALMS.

The inquiry, held at the commission’s headquarters on Tuesday in Abuja and streamed virtually to accommodate wider participation, drew representatives from network operators, internet service providers, infrastructure providers, broadcast entities, regulators, consumer groups, and analysts from the wider digital ecosystem.

Spectrum Licensing and Renewal Transparency (2015–2025): Who got what, at what price? Asks Remmy Nweke - Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS

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In this edition of Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS with REMMY NWEKE, probes Nigeria’s spectrum licensing and renewal transparency (2015–2025), asking who got what, at what price, and why openness still matters as part of FOI and Data Governance series.
 

Spectrum, the invisible lifeblood of wireless communication, has quietly shaped Nigeria’s digital economy more than any other infrastructure asset in the last decade. Every phone call, mobile data session, and streaming service depends on the regulated use of spectrum frequencies. 

Yet, beyond the fanfare of multi-million-dollar license announcements, one fundamental question often goes unanswered: how transparent is Nigeria’s spectrum licensing and renewal process? Who really got what and at what price?

Chukwuyere Izuogu becomes A4AI champion on infrastructure, open access, spectrum

ITREALMS:

Research fellow at the African Academic Network on InternetPolicy (AANoIP) and Senior Counsel at the law-office of Streamsowers & Köhn, Mr. Chukwuyere Izuogu has been named a champion of the Alliance forAffordable Internet (A4AI), reports ITRealms.

As A4AI champion, Izuogu ITRealms gathered would lead initiatives on the recently reconstituted Infrastructure, Open Access & Spectrum (IOAS) Working Group, thereby taking over from Messrs Jinmi Oluanuiga and Abraham Oshadami who served as champions for the Infrastructure and Spectrum working groups respectively before now.

Confirming this to ITRealms, the Africa Regional Coordinator, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Onica N. Makwakwa commended the elsewhile working group champions for their services and dedication, noting they set a strong foundation to continue work.

“We are pleased to now have Chukwuyere Izuogu, as the Champion of the new Infrastructure, Open Access & Spectrum Working Group,” she declared.

According to her, this is an important year for the coalition, with the opportunity to provide input to the Broadband Plan, expressing the hope, that member will accord him all support in this role to ensure impactful contribution towards access to affordable broadband for all Nigerians.

ITRealms also gathered that Izuogu as a research fellow at AANoIP, saw his research interest focusing on all areas of telecommunications, information technology, intellectual property and competition law.

He equally has consulted cum acted as lead researcher on several milestone projects relating to new regulatory and policy issues in the telecommunications industry.

Izuogu, who is the author of Nigeria’s leading academic work on competition in telecommunications entitled Regulating Anti-competitive Practices in Nigeria's Communications Sector, (Wolf Legal Publishers, Netherlands, January 2017) is a member of the Internet Society, Nigeria Chapter, British Computer Society (BCS), The Chartered Institute for IT, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) UK, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Chukwuyere has an undergraduate degree in law from the University of Benin, Nigeria (2003), Barrister-at-Law professional certificate from the Nigerian law school (2005) and an LL.M in Information Technology & Intellectual Property Law (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Hannover, Germany (2009).

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Africa regional spectrum tops agenda @ITU-ATU RRS 2017

ITRealms:

Arising from the Regional Radiocommunication Seminar 2017 for Africa (RRS-17 Africa), which came to a close in Dakar, Senegal recently, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Member States with focus on spectrum management on the continent, reports ITRealms.

This seminar, ITRealms gathered was organized to address the regional radiocommunications issues and notification, coordination and recording of frequency assignments.

Jointly organized by the Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications (MPT) and the Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications et des Postes (ARTP) of Senegal, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) the seminar was opened by Mr Abdou Karim Sall, Director-General of the ARTP.

Some of the topics discussed during the forum, ITRealms reports, addressed challenges and opportunities for Africa, under the framework of WRC-19, in particular regarding “Emerging innovative technologies; 5G and IMT spectrum identification; and Digital terrestrial television.”

ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao said that in view of the importance these matters hold for Africa, the forum programme has been devised such as to allow experts from the region to exchange views both among themselves but also with other specialists from other regions of the globe.

Also speaking, François Rancy, Director of ITU's Radiocommunication Bureau, pointed out that the forum further addressed difficulties encountered and solutions related to the migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in a round table for the participating countries.

ITRealms recalls that over 160 participants attended the seminar and forum, from  more than 35 Administrations including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

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120 stakeholders storm Cameroon for CTO spectrum management

ITRealms:

Some 120 policymakers, regulators, private sector executives and representatives from interest groups stormed the Camerounian capital, Yaounde for the first-ever spectrum management meeting put together by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), reports ITRealms.

The three-day session was attended by representatives from the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA), International Telecommunication Union and African Telecommunications Union.

Also in attendance were international and regional organisations as well as private-sector participants including AINMT, ATDI, Avanti Communications, Inmarsat, Facebook and MTN.

Over the past three decades, the CTO has run numerous capacity development and training programmes for radio communications engineers and policymakers on spectrum. At one point, the organisation was known mainly for such technical programmes.

CTO’s Secretary-General Shola Taylor in his opening address underscored the importance of spectrum management.

"As mobile and wireless communication technologies continue to improve, and as many more of us access and increasingly also depend on these technologies, spectrum is becoming an evermore important resource," he said.

Taylor also said that at the very least, spectrum's economic value has increased dramatically from what it was only 20 years ago, and today it is no longer a mere natural resource or commodity for many of CTO member countries, it is increasingly also a life-critical and life-changing resource.

“5G data and machine-to-machine wireless networks alone will inevitably increase ICTs contribution to the economy of those countries, but the underlying technologies require more spectrum and international consensus on how it should be allocated, hence our decision to dedicate a whole event to this subject," Mr Taylor said.

During three days, participants discussed a range of issues, including: Planning for 5G: global and regional perspectives; WRC-15’s outcomes and implications for spectrum sharing, Maximising spectrum capacity for broadband development; Spectrum bands, technologies and solutions; Efficient spectrum utilisation for universal access Spectrum planning for the future of broadcasting and spectrum auctions

The event was officially opened by Honourable Minette Libom Li Likeng, Minister of Posts & Telecommunications of Cameroon who also called on regulators to maintain transparency and fairness when assigning spectrum.

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Pix: Secretary-General Shola Taylor and the Honourable Minette Libom Li Likeng, Minister of Posts & Telecommunications of Cameroon

ICASA to host 2017 global spectrum summit @Cape Town

ITRealms:

The South African communications regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has been named as the co-host for the 2017 Global Summit of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, just as the body admits 11 new members, reports ITRealms.

The board chairman, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance and Director of Affordable Access at Microsoft, Mr. Paul Garnett, affirming this in a press statement made available to ITRealms.

The new 11 organisations, ITRealms gathered are from Africa, Asia, North America and Europe joined the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance as the fifth annual Global Summit was announced to take place in Cape Town from 9-11 May 2017.

He said that this follow-up from 2016’s successful summit in Bogota, Colombia, the conference on wireless spectrum sharing is now heading to South Africa. The announcement comes as the Alliance welcomes 11 new members from all over the world.

The 2017, he said, the summit will build on the success from 2016 and be supported by 11 new members, spanning four major continents - Africa, Asia, Europe and North America - and including public benefit companies, multinationals, research institutions, and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The new members include; Telecast Technology Corp., China; Wi-Fi Interactive Network, the Philippines; Nominet, United Kingdom; M-KOPA, Kenya; Ekovolt, Nigeria; C3 Limited, Malawi; Project Isizwe, South Africa; AirJaldi Networks, India; and Marvell Semiconductors, Axiom Technologies and the IEEE, all from the United States of America.

According to Garnett, the co-host, ICASA, will play a significant role at the Global Summit as ICASA recently published a Discussion Paper on the Framework for Dynamic and Opportunistic Spectrum Management for consultation.

This paper, industry observers said, discusses a proposal to authorize license-exempt access to unused TV channels, also known as television white spaces (TVWS).

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Juwah explains NCC’s interest in corporate governance

Dr. Eugene Juwah, EVC, NCC

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Commissions Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has given some insights why the Commission choose to host a forum on corporate governance.

Juwah who was represented at the occasion in Lagos by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders, Mr. Ifeanyi Itanyi, in his address, last weekend, noted that the essential elements under this consideration include the organisational know-how, managerial talent and compliance with standards, processes and procedures of players in the telecommunications sector.

"We would like to start by first looking at compliance with standards and, in particular, processes and procedures from which every other corporate governance question is simply a derivative," he said.

NCC, he said, is particularly critical of regulatory failure that could arise from negligence of those organizational responsibilities.

This disposition, he said, goes further concerning the sharing of infrastructures and in the efficient use of other scarce resources in its market regulation efforts.

"This now leads us to the concept and practice of corporate governance," he declared.

Juwah cited the Sir Adrian Cadbury, the Ethics Prize Winner’s definition of corporate governance, which places demands on NCC to setup and continuously monitor the ethical framework within which those who run telecommunications companies in Nigeria should operate.

"Responsibility for decisions, therefore, will run through both ends of the spectrum, that is, the board and management," he said, stressing that operating companies have to take account of its responsibilities to industry in decision making, but the industry, through the regulator, has to accept its responsibilities for setting the standards against which those decisions are made.

Therefore, he revealed the reason behind the forum, saying it’s expected to shape the behavioural relationships through which telecommunications companies are directed and controlled.

Remmy Nweke

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Kemlinks hosts Spectrum Africa in Uganda

A three-day Spectrum Africa 2012 has taken off in the city of Uganda says the chief executive officer, Kemilinks International., Mr. Shola Taylor.

Confirming this, Taylor also said that Spectrum Africa 2012, kicked off at Sheraton Hotel Kampala, Monday and is expected to last till Wednesday April 25.

According to him, the event is to boost the African Union, NEPAD strategies on Spectrum Management in Africa, prompting Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts converge in Kampala to dialogue on Spectrum Management.

He also said that this informed their respective decisions to endorse this edition of Spectrum Africa which is to review the decisions of the recently concluded World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC 12) and examine its implications for Africa.

Taylor disclosed that Kemilinks International is collaborating the Uganda Communications Commission and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) on Spectrum Africa 2012.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), he said, is also participating at this high level event as key partners.

For the Head of Information Systems at the African Union Commission headquartered in Addis Ababa, Moctar Yedaly,  

“The African Union is actively involved in promoting a harmonised ICT policy and regulatory framework in Africa, and the management of spectrum and orbital resources is a key component of that strategy.”

The theme of the forum is, ‘WRC 12: Implications for Africa.’

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NCC may sanction unauthorized users of 5.2-5.9 GHz band

The game may be up for those individuals and institutions currently using the 5.2-5.9 GHz band without relevant authorization.

Dr. Eugene Juwah, EVC of NCC

Feelers reaching ITRealms Online from the telecommunications apex house in Abuja indicated that Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may be gearing up to literally bite those unauthorized users on this frequency band.

Investigations by ITRealms Online indicated that this band range gives a boost to wireless access and classified to an extent as enabling technologies to operate not only on the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands of 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands but other bands like 2.0, 3.5, 5.0, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 GHz among others have been crossly used by financial institutions, hitherto known as license exempt spectrum.

It was also gathered that these users take advantage of this band without commiserate frequency allocation procedure from the government, hence NCC is frowning at it.

Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Tony Ojobo had in recent public notices, even published in some six national dailies warned that it has come to the notice of the NCC that despite these efforts to quit the band of illegal use of 5.2-5.9 GHz band, some banks are still operating in the band.

He therefore reiterated that all banks in Nigeria to consult their ICT service provider(s) to confirm that they are not buying bandwidth from illegal operators and unauthorized service providers on the 5.470-5.725 GHz band.

He insisted that all concerned banks or any persons affected should once again note that it is a criminal offence pursuant to Section 122 National Communications Act (NCA) of 2003 to operate in any frequency not duly assigned by the Commission.

The consequences of such act, he said, may lead to imprisonment, sanction and forfeiture of equipment used in operating the illegal services.

Ojobo was particular that section 141 of the NCA 2003 gives the Commission’s officials, authority to enter any affected person or licensee’s premises.

In view of the above, he said, all banks operating within the 5.4GHz band spanning 5.470-5.725 GHz frequency range are hereby advised to immediately vacate the frequency band.

“The Enforcement Unit of the Commission shall without further recourse commence appropriate nationwide enforcement action including but not limited to prosecution, fine and confiscation of equipment used in the illegal transmission of services,” he warned.

Remmy Nweke

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