NCC plans bids for broadband license

By The Citizen

Executive Vice-Chairman, EVC, of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, yesterday, announced plans to open bids for broadband licenses next month, just as the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, CTO, also challenged Nigeria to actualise its newly-drawn Broadband Action Plan which may then become a model other Commonwealth countries can adopt.

Addressing a world press conference to herald the 2013 annual CTO conference in Abuja, Secretary-General of the organization, Prof Tim Unwin, said that with its human, natural and skill potentials, Nigeria should by now have become the role model which other countries would copy to develop their economies.

According to Unwin, much as the drawing of broadband action plan recently by Nigeria is a positive development in itself, it may amount to nothing if adequate and practical implementation does not follow up.

His words: 'The benefit of broadband is best appreciated when it is made available to where it can be used to develop sectors like health, education and others. But this can not be achieved without collaborations. I think Nigeria's broadband development needs multi-sectoral collaboration. Your broadband plan should be such that other countries could copy from, if you get it right. We have to move from rhetorics to action. It is easy to write action plans but getting practical action into the plan is where the job really is.'

Giving insight into how adequate action could be injected into the plan, Unwin advised that new business models to drive broadband development should be developed adding that collaboration with every sector that would need broadband services is also key.