Nigeria's National Broadband Plan 2013-2018

Definitions of Data:

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Main Focus of Document:

Outlines the government's plans to improve broadband in the country in an effort to foster economic development

Target Beneficiaries or Sectors:

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Key Elements:

The Plan aims to promote pervasive broadband deployment at an affordable price and to increase broadband usage by citizens for their benefit locally and internationally, thereby boosting further foreign investment and trade. The key details are as follows:

Licensees shall be encouraged to build out fibre to all their base stations, exchanges, and interconnect points employing the Open Access and Shared Infrastructure Framework. For rural and remote locations, low cost 3G satellite backhauled, solar powered solutions will be employed. For sustainable development and growth in the ICT sector, the government has a critical supporting role to play in establishing a good policy and regulatory framework for the sector. Regulation and policy also need to be more far reaching from a holistic perspective to involve the building of new infrastructure such as roads, broadband ready homes, and utilities. The Federal Government shall initiate a review and update of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 to cover broadband (wireless and fixed) and critical ICT infrastructure as an essential social right in the class of a utility.

Promote Enabling National Infrastructure The distribution value chain includes National Long Distance Infrastructure, Regional Infrastructure, Metropolitan Area Networks, and Last Mile Access. Because of the diverse nature of the country in terms of class and geography, different technologies will be deployed including: terrestrial wireless networks, optic fibre transmission networks, fibre to the home/premises, DSL systems, satellite systems and fibre/broadband over power lines. This will ensure the provision of solutions tailored to the needs of individual groups or communities.

National Backbone Infrastructure: Nigeria’s transmission infrastructure landscape comprises National and Regional Long Distance infrastructure. Where these are interconnected, they become a National Backbone Network. Currently, the National and Regional Long Distance Operators are not interconnected with one another.

The National Long Distance infrastructure landscape features extensive microwave networks and optic fibre cable routes running across the whole country with presence in all States and the FCT. On some routes, there is multiple optic fibre cable infrastructure running side by side, installed by different operators. In spite of the fact that large amounts of cable infrastructure actually exists to fill the existing demand gap, operators are not interconnected, making it difficult to seamlessly deliver services that cut across a number of operator networks. There are also cases where dark fibres exist on some routes but are not accessible to other licensees who need them.

The Federal Government shall ensure that all cable infrastructure is interconnected as a critical prelude to facilitate an open access regime across the country, and will ensure that the current laws and regulations on these issues are complied with in order to achieve an integrated national backbone infrastructure. In the Regional Long Distance area there is insufficient cable infrastructure linking the various cities and towns within each region or state. There is therefore a need to facilitate the build out and interconnection of uncovered routes to ensure that all large population centres are linked to the National Backbone.

Critical National Infrastructure & Cyber Security For improved access to infrastructure, the private sector is agreed that it must open up access to existing infrastructure including transmission networks and fibre ducts to enable more rapid cross-country delivery of services. This must be done with transparent cost-based pricing and can be implemented immediately; all future network deployments will operate under the same principle. Due to the paucity of wire-line last mile access infrastructure, the primary medium for nationwide delivery will be mobile broadband. Efforts will, however, be made to encourage deployment of fibre to homes or premises where feasible.

Other critical and urgent requirements will be to declare ICT/Telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure that qualify for special protection; secure ROW fee waivers from State Governments interested in building digital havens of highly connected communities; embark on awareness creation schemes to achieve universal acceptance of the transformative impact of broadband to society; and conduct digital literacy programs at all levels. The full implementation plan details other work streams, but a brief summary is provided below. Essentially the government will: • Establish policies that regard ICT networks and installations as critical national infrastructure that qualify for special government protection. • Promote transparency of pricing and reduction of build-out costs by encouraging an increased level of infrastructure sharing and interconnection,s and introducing price caps where necessary or when market forces fail. • Take the necessary regulatory measures to ensure better performance levels in the delivery of broadband services. • Facilitate rapid rollout of wireless and wire-line infrastructure and provide incentives to encourage a national 3G wireless coverage to at least 80% of population by 2018. • Timely release of more spectrum for broadband services. • Foster an attractive investment climate through targeted schemes for stimulating demand and providing targeted concessions, tax incentives, grants or support where needed. • Raise digital literacy and inclusion by using existing national assets for community access. • Advocate and demonstrate the benefits of broadband within different levels of government and also among the people of Nigeria.