FG to license new spectrum for rural broadband connectivity

Sustained pressure by telecommunications companies for the release of more frequency spectrum to aid widespread deployment of broadband services is yielding results, as the Federal Government has approved the piloting of TV whitespace (TVW) technology in Nigeria, Business Day has gathered.

TV whitespace, according to industry experts, is the unused portion of wireless spectrum in the frequency bands generally set aside for television transmissions. This technology can be utilised for a wide range of applications, including providing low-cost connectivity, connecting rural areas to broadband, improving the building of wireless networks, creating hotspots for internet access, and offloading mobile traffic. 

Omobola Johnson, minister of communications technology, disclosed recently that the pilot of the project would commence with six companies offering services in unserved and underserved areas.

“Pilots will be for one year under licensing from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),” said Johnson in a recent document. “The purpose of the pilot is to establish the TVWS solution as a viable rural access technology for the Nigerian context.”

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy by GDP, has a broadband penetration of 6.8 percent, according to the Ministry of Communications Technology. The National Broadband Plan has set a target of a five-fold increase in broadband penetration by 2017, and industry insiders are of the view that the pilot programme is a critical step towards making affordable wireless connectivity available to rural communities across the country.

One of the fundamental reasons behind the lag in broadband service adoption is the high cost, says Pew Research, adding, “Whitespace stands to transform the way we purchase and use wireless internet. It isn’t yet widely adopted, but this unlicensed, free form of broadband is gaining significant traction.”

Whitespace technology has, however, been tested in many areas of the world, with promising outcomes. According to investigation, one of the largest whitespace technology trials occurred in Cambridge in 2011 when Microsoft, the BBC, BT, and Nokia launched a consortium to support the project. Then, at the end of 2013, Ofcom, the regulator of United Kingdom’s communications industry, announced a six-month trial with 20 private and public sector organisations, making it Europe’s first major pilot of the technology.

There have been other successful tests in Canada and Africa in recent years as well. In 2011, Wilmington, North Carolina implemented whitespace technology to connect the city’s infrastructure, allowing public officials to remotely turn lights on and off in parks, provide public wireless broadband to certain areas of the city, and monitor water levels.

Also, at West Virginia University, whitespace technology is used to power a ‘super Wi-Fi network’. It started in 2013 with wireless internet on the campus’ public transit platform which transports about 15,000 students a day.

Meanwhile, whitespace technology has significant potential in Nigeria, even as available information shows that Google Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation are already in hot pursuit of the opportunities in Africa’s emerging whitespace market, in a continent where 16 percent of its population are online.

Experts say spectrum from whitespaces is ideal for emerging markets like Nigeria because wireless signals can travel up to 10 kilometres in radius, making it the best bet for remote, off-the-grid villages.

An estimated N478 billion has been ploughed into the expansion of Nigeria’s international fibre-optic capacity. This has in turn eased the long-standing constraints of high-speed internet connectivity.

But experts say Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of these broadband cables. The internet market is still characterised by the slow and exasperating access to the cyberspace. Insufficient national fibre backbone, metropolitan fibre as well as last mile connections, according to them, are significant drawbacks hindering better internet service delivery in the country.

Alan Stillwell, incentive auctions advisor, Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Office of Engineering and Technology, says unlicensed spectrum provides opportunities for free wireless local distribution of internet service.

“Whitespaces can be a very useful and very cost-effective way of connecting people who otherwise don’t have internet access,” says David Crawford of the Centre of Whitespace Communications, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom.

“Though initially looked at as a means of bringing the internet to more remote parts of the developed world, where low population density makes expenditure on new infrastructure non-cost effective, whitespace could also offer solutions for developing countries,” he says.  

Monday Ogbe, chief executive officer, Back-Up Networks Limited, said in an interview that TVWS could also enable last mile broadband at affordable costs, further urging government to speed up efforts to explore whitespace so as to deepen rural internet penetration.

Echoing the views of Ogbe, Akin Akinbo, a telecoms expert, says TVWS have tremendous potential in Africa and beyond.

“This vacant spectrum can be used to advance access, open up fresh business opportunity, and stimulate economic growth. Signals in TVWS have good propagation, meaning they can travel long distances,” Akinbo says.

The push by the Broadband Council for the release of more spectrum by the National Frequency Management Council and NCC is bearing fruit. The NCC successfully auctioned the 2.3GHz spectrum band to Bitflux Communications in February this year. The auction is in line with the mandated timeline of the broadband plan. The release of complementary InfraCo licences will follow shortly.

NFMC continues to work closely with the NBC and NCC with regard to digital dividends and the release of 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz planned for later this year. Incumbent occupants of the spectrum have been engaged and a mode of transition is being worked out.

Ben Uzor Jr