Executive Vice Chairman Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof.
Umar Danbatta, said on Thursday that the commission will deploy
massive broadband infrastructure to rural areas to boost internet
access.
Danbatta, who disclosed this at the Post-Nigeria National Broadband
Plan 2013-2018 in Abuja organised by the Association of
Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), noted that the wide
gaps between the urban and rural aeas made it imperative for the
deployment.
With close to 200 access gaps mostly in the rural areas of the
country, the NCC EVC added that the Universal Service Provision Funds
(USPF) will close the access gaps.
“What we envisage to happen next is that there will be massive
deployment of broadband infrastructure in rural areas that are
unserved and underserved.
“The whole idea is that we are going to have a fiber access point in
virtually all the 774 local government areas in the country.
“By the time this massive deployment of infrastructure takes place and
is concluded we hope to see the penetration hit the 70 per cent that
we are talking about here.
“Even though this has not been conclusively agreed upon, I will like
to assure Nigerians of our readiness to deploy broadband
infrastructure in rural areas.”
“We intend to do that by deploying more base transmitters’ stations
in these areas and recently we have experimented and did a pilot on
how we can deploy a rural technology broadband solution in order to
bridge the gap faster.
“So there is a provision in the 2018 budget as well as 2019 budget for
deployment of this rural technology solution to bridge the gap faster.
“And we have succeeded in bringing down the number of the access gaps
from over 200 to about 190.
“We have cut down on the number of Nigerians that will not access
especially internet services from close to 40 million to around 32
million.”
The NCC boss said that the commission was working with the National
Broadcasting Commission to develop guidelines for the introduction of
TV White space deployment.
He said that the deployment of the TV White Space would deepen
broadband penetration.
