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Shackled Strides And Missed Opportunities in ICT in 2008Jan 06, 2009 (Daily Independent/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The performance review table of operators of Nigerian telecommunication industry, who ever played in the industry shows that as at close of business on December 31 2008, nine operators are running full stream, eight are ailing, one was bought substantially into while six were bought over 100 per cent. Four had since closed shop, seven are begging for buy-over and two are fit for merger while the performance of one is indeterminate, as its subscribers are largely unknown. Toady, 19 are trudging on in the market. Etisalat Entrant Etisalat finally executed the Mubadala mono-selection licence of 2006 and rolled out services in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan and Ogbomosho, several months after the promised date. It does not matter when, the point is that it came at last. It is still in search of the joker that could repeat what Globacom did when it arrived in 2003 with the per-second rate of charging, a feat that one operator had said was impossible - as if anything is impossible in engineering. 2008 was indeed full of action, slowed down by executive slow motion right from the top. NCC As Telecom Regulator NCC, Nigeria's regulator, must have had a busy year. For long, it conceived the ideas of the Wire-Nigeria Initiative (WIN), State-Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI), etc, certainly for the purpose of connecting Nigerians to such possibilities as 2008 demonstrated. Now, Nigerians can't wait to see it happen. The telecom regulator came up with a code and practice regime on standard three-digit code number, which shall serve the purpose of emergency services in Nigeria. Ditto for pre-registration of phone subscribers and number portability except that the matter spent the entire year being on the drawing board. Globacom Rolls Out Services In Benin Republic Nigeria's Globacom made its way into Benin Republic, towards the fulfilment of the promise of building a truly African network. Transnational Corporation, Transcorp, which bought into Nigeria's ailing National Carrier (NITEL) in 2006, was threatened with withdrawal of licence if no remarkable improvement was recorded in NITEL's and Mtel's, services. There was no improvement but the licence was not withdrawn either. There was also the re-branding of two major players. Threat To Rural Telephony Amidst all the good news, there was a threat of a probe of the Rural Telephony Project (RTP), which was never to be. The threat gave way to a solution, which is neither here nor there, as government handed over RTP's remnants to five telephone service provider upstarts that the government said are 'operators'. The RTP is a $200 million telecommunications loan packaged by a consortium of Chinese investors in 2002 for provision of telephone service in 96 rural communities in Nigeria. It finally stalled after several months of inaction. Nigeria's Top Level Domain There was encouraging activity with Nigeria's Top Level Domain, .ng, as the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) finally announced institutional structures and major framework under which the association would operate. Namely four institutional elements - The Secretariat, Policies & Procedures, Technical Infrastructure and Service Provider Partners. Several draft documents, which sought to map the way forward were reviewed and pioneer registrars came alive. Dashed Hope Of The Emergence Of Federal Ministry For ICT Then the bad, big disappointment for Nigeria's ICT space in 2008 is the fact that the federal Ministry for ICT did not emerge. Very senior IT practitioners expressed serious concern about the direction or lack of it that government trudged in the year under review. It was widely believed that just as many were clamouring that IT be raised to the level of a ministry in a converged regime for regulation and project implementation, the IT sections of federal ministries were about being merged with the departments of Planning and Statistics! Government in 2006 commenced a desire to restructure the information and communications industries when it set up a committee to examine the wherewithal of a converged industry. It, however, impulsively went ahead to create the Ministry of Information and Communications ahead of the work of the committee only to realise that restructuring in a true sense is more than mere name changing and merging of ministerial portfolios. It is understood that the committee completed its work and advised government on the amount of work required to effect a true change that would take the advantage of science and technology in the years ahead. Work had since stalled on the project and the Yar' Adua's administration since assumption of office in 2007 had operated as if the issue never mattered. Starcomms, NITEL and Transcorp Performance Starcomms, for example, made its way to the capital market. NITEL still remained sick. Infact, terminally may be. Meanwhile, Kevin Caruso, a new hand, who Transcorp hired to put NITEL to shape, said a turnaround of the company would be in the horizon. Few weeks into his assuming office, Caruso told an audience in Lagos: "We have studied the network extensively. We know what needs to be fixed. And it is not just a matter of fixing it but sustaining the tempo. We have identified the black spots on the network, in the switches, in the transmission and in the billing. Within three to four months, we will get the network running." The four-month promise expired in November 2008 just about when Caruso's workers went on strike, telling the world their company's ship was sailing in no direction. The verdict is, therefore, clear. DAAR Communications' Digital Multi-channel Direct-to-Home Pay TV As the year was coasting home, DAAR Communications' Digital Multi-channel Direct-to-Home Pay TV kicked off at Abuja. 40 channels covering a wide range of broadcast interests are provided for by the afro-centric media conglomerate. What, however, was probably the most regrettable story of the year is the Nigerian, Communications Satellite, NIGCOMSAT-I. Communications Satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1 Communications Satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1, which was declared troubled in orbit. It was not immediately clear what the remote cause was but bits of information that reached government and got refurbished for onward transmission to the public showed that the handlers apparently lost control of its tracking due to insufficient maintenance skills. Thank goodness General Olu Obasanjo does not read newspapers. What appeared under the caption of 'Nigcomsat apologises to customers' in several literature would have made him broke his seeming silence. The article was nothing too far away from share insult on the intelligence of Nigerians. The 42 kilobits of text could only have been crafted by those who purport to make image for the distraught government-owned Nigcomsat Ltd and not likely by its own officials. Apart from the first two and the last paragraphs, which feign true apology, the remaining 14 went cataloguing other satellite failures in a futile attempt to justify the waste, which the past government threw upon the country as a result of autocracy, graft and egotism. Emergence Of Akunyili As Information And Communications Minister As the year drew to an end, a new Minister for Information and Communication was announced. A renowned drug-warrior and heroine of Nigeria's professional class, Prof. Dora Akunyili is well known for her dynamic work in the Food and Drug agency and all eyes are now on her to see if she would bring this same dynamism to the ministry, which sits atop key segments of the nation's ICT industry. For starters, she may want to sound out her boss and explain to the industry what the position of government is on industry restructuring and why. Technology promises to lead the march into future since, after all, IPV6 is already showing that IP will make further radical changes to our lives. |