The Chief Executive Officer of ntel, the
latest entrant into the Nigerian telecoms space, Mr. Kamar Abass, has
predicted that by 2020, the Nigerian telecoms market would be dominated
by data and broadband offerings.
He based his prediction on the increasing
demand for data and mobile broadband services in the country and the
global shift from voice to data communication, which he said is already
happening in Nigeria.
Kamar said: “The truth is that the demand
for telecoms services globally will always be underestimated, and there
will always be underestimation in the transition that is occurring in
the telecoms industry. But we are beginning to see a tremendous shift in
the telecoms sector and this paradigm shift is unstoppable, and the
shift is from a voice oriented communication market to a market that
will be dominated by data and mobile broadband by 2020.”
According to him, Nigeria currently does
not have more than 35 million mobile broadband customers, in spite of
the huge number of active mobile subscribers that are over 150 million
and the 35 million mobile broadband customers that are just 20 per cent
of the 150 million mobile subscribers.
He added: ’’From our forecast, the growth
of data and mobile broadband from now till the year 2020, will result
in over 229 million active registered SIM in the Nigerian market, which
is a 50 per cent growth from today’s total market size. Again, less than
30 million of the 229 million will be on 2G narrowband, and this means
that about 200 million of the active mobile subscribers in Nigeria will
be on mobile broadband.
So what this means is that there are huge
opportunities in the Nigerian telecoms market for any operator to exist
and survive in business. ‘’
He said as the latest entrant into the
Nigerian telecoms space, the opportunities are huge for ntel and the
existing telecoms operators who are quick to study and also follow the
trend of things to come.
Corroborating the views of the ntel boss
on the envisaged increase in the demand for data and mobile broadband,
the President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria
(ATCON), Mr. Lanre Ajayi has called on the Nigeria Communications
Commission (NCC) and the federal government to speed up the
implementation of the National Broadband Policy, which projected an
increase in broadband penetration from the current 10 per cent
penetration to 30 per cent penetration by 2018. According to Ajayi, the
forecast for increased data and mobile broadband is a reality adding
Nigeria must endeavour to meet up with the demand by increasing
broadband penetration in the country. He said unless increased broadband
penetration was achieved, it might be difficult for Nigeria to meet up
with the future trend for data and mobile broadband.
Furthermore, he noted that access to
broadband would boost economic activities by driving online traffic,
insisting that the NCC and the federal government must expedite action
to implement the country’s broadband policy in order to give Nigerians
the desired opportunity to broadband access.
Ajayi also frowned on a situation where
Nigeria has abundant broadband capacities at the shores of the country
from MainOne, Glo 1 and MTN WACS submarine cables that are not utilised.
He expressed concern that such broadband capacities were still
underutilised by Nigerians because of the inability of the submarine
cable operators to transmit broadband capacities from the shores of the
country to the hinterlands for last-mile internet connectivity, where
the service was most needed.
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