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MONDAY QUARTER-BACKING: The Un-necessary-ness of NCC-NIGCOMSAT's Public Spat
By
Mobolaji E. Aluko PhD Burtonsville MD, USA
August 13, 2007
INTRODUCTION
I have been watching with feelings both of amusement and of dismay the very public spat between telecommunications regulator NCC (the Nigerian Communications Commission www.ncc.ng.gov ) and NIGCOMSAT Ltd. ( www.nigcomsat.org ), the Nigerian-government-owned company that recently sent Nigeria's first communications satellite NigComSat-1 to orbit, courtesy of Chinese designers and launchers. The spat has to do with the alleged refusal of the NCC to grant NIGCOMSAT free use of unspecified spectrum license DESPITE former president Obasanjo's express instructions (on May 5, 2007) to do so within days of his departure on May 29.
When two people are fighting, it is usual for an intermediary to hear both sides, and then to try to be as objective as possible, usually blaming both sides first before coming out in judgment in favor of one side or against the other.
I will eschew that objective ploy - having "heard" both sides - and come out against NIGCOMSAT. Here is why.
GOING TO THE (FORMER) PRESIDENT FOR RELIEF
I found this particular aspect of this issue to be jejune. It was clear that NIGCOMSAT knew that the NCC had been tasked to license spectrum to users. However, it felt that it could dismantle NCC "intransigence" by going to "Baba" President for a special dispensation. If NIGCOMSAT does not need NCC at all, why not just go ahead and use the frequencies approved by "Baba"? Where would it stop if another agency had gone to "Baba" for special dispensation? Is this not how many government and non-governmental agencies got tax waivers amounting to BILLIONS of dollars - in effect revenue losses to the government?
So that is a slippery slope that clearly violates due process.
At best, a President might have been prevailed upon to call the NCC and NIGCOMSAT together to resolve the issue but the LAST WORD should have been that of the NCC which is CONSTITUTIONALLY charged to award spectrum licenses, NOT the President.
GOING TO THE PRESS WITH AN ADVERTORIAL
While the controversy might have been going on for a while subterraneously, it got really blown out of proportion when NIGCOMSAT took out an advertorial in several newspapers stating its case (see Appendix I below). Consequently having failed to get the NCC to buckle under a former presidential directive, it had now taken its case to the Court of Public Opinion, hoping perchance that that court would force either the NCC – or the new President – to yield to its (NIGCOMSAT's) desires.
Again I find this jejune. My major question: who paid for these advertorials, how much was paid and is it ever justified for an arm of government to spend so much government money to vilify another?
A SATELLITE IS MERELY A RELAY STATION AFTER ALL!
This here is my most important technical point: okay, NIGCOMSAT sent a satellite into geostationary (circular) orbit 22,000 miles up in the air. But a satellite is MERELY a relay station – you send information (data, voice, video, Internet, etc) to it from an Earth Station, and receive the information somewhere else or many places else via another Earth Station, all under some Command and Control Center operations. So in effect ALL that NIGCOMSAT would like to do can be considered TERRESTRIAL after some information has bounced UP and DOWN.
Now we might ask: what spectrums is NIGCOMSAT SPECIFICALLY seeking NCC permission for:
(1) the UPLINK (Earth-to-SATELLITE), (2) DOWNLINK (SATELLITE-to-Earth) or (3) TERRESTRIAL (Earth-to-Earth RADIO) CONNECTIONS ?
Not once in its advertorial does NIGCOMSAT mention a PARTICULAR frequency spectrum in contention with NCC eg 800 MHz band or 2.2 GHz band, etc. (see Table 1 for TERRESTRIAL frequency spectrums currently licensed and allocated by the NCC.) After all, the NCC is NOT involved in allocating SATELLITE frequency spectrums – that is the business of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union www.itu.org ). Rather, what NIGCOMSAT requested for was an incredible "total frequency" range apparently with an incredible range of terrestrial business opportunities in sight:
QUOTE
On 5th May 2007, Mr. President approved specific spectrum allocation to NigComSat Limited and "total" frequency license for any telecommunication service NigComSat may wish to offer. It is germane to state that under the extant regulations, NigComSat as a government owned company is required to apply to the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication or the President for spectrum allocation and not to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). However, since Mr. President's approval has been communicated to NCC, the NCC ought to comply with Mr. President's directives...........
UNQUOTE
Obviously, it does not appear reasonable for NIGCOMSAT to be given ANY and ALL frequencies that it might wish for eg 800 MHz all the way to 3.5 GHz, which many other companies have competed and paid heavy sums of money for over the years. That would be giving it undue advantage even as a government company. In effect it would become a STNO – a Super-Third National Operator – since the Dominant National Operator (NITEL www.nitelnet.com ) and Second National Operator (Globacom www.gloworld.com ) do not even have their own satellite in space!
Furthermore, one also thought that government had decided to get out of the business of providing terrestrial communications services – hence it got out from NITEL and privatized it. So why the flip-flop here?
In any case, none of the satellite service providers that NIGCOMSAT mentioned in its advertorial (Intelsat, Eutelstat, Telenor Network, Singtel/OPTUS, Korea Telecom, ASTRA Thuraya and SES AMERICOM) is listed as being licensed for any frequencies by NCC in Nigeria. So what gives?
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
What NIGCOMSAT wishes to do – make additional satellite bandwidth available more affordably to the Nigerian community - is laudable. It is how it is going about it that is not so laudable.
So some suggestions are in order here.
First, the spat between it and the NCC must stop and negotiations between the two parties should be held forthwith behind closed doors. The uncertainty that such controversy engenders will simply scare away both potential investors as well as potential consumers of its services.
Secondly NIGCOMSAT (or more accurately its parent, the NASRDA National Space Research and Development Agency www.nasrda.org ) should create – or cause to be created - two separate arms:
The Satellite Services may at the beginning have majority government ownership (it is now fully owned by government) but it should have a clear plan to wean itself from such majority ownership in the earliest possible time and let the world know it. Its major aim should be to sell SATELLITE bandwidth more inexpensively than the Intelsats, Eutelsats etc. of this world to ANY consumers/customers in Nigeria, ECOWAS and African market. The Terrestrial Services subsidiary - similar to subsidiaries created by Eutelsat, Intelsat, SES Americom, etc. - could then be MINORITY-OWNED by government simply in its attempt to maximize/demonstrate the impact of the Satellite Services – but should compete for and pay for frequencies to the NCC just like ANY OTHER private company.
Thirdly, rather than depending on just one satellite "bird" aloft to offer all possible offerable services as listed in Table 3, NIGCOMSAT should plan to increase its fleet of satellites in the shortest possible time, establish several teleports and Points-of-Presence (POP) in and outside Nigeria and seek its own (or rent from Globacom etc.) fiber optics capacity if it wishes to re-coup government expenditure on it - an alleged $450 million investment by the Federal Government, in addition to (or including?) a 9-year, $200 million 3.08% interest rate loan from China in February 2006. (see http://www.nasrda.org/news_and
Finally, in the interim NIGCOMSAT should concentrate on a few of those satellite services that Nigeria needs most and do them well, efficiently and inexpensively. Anything to crash our GSM costs, reduce raw bandwidth costs as well as increase Internet penetration in Nigeria are welcome. Touting 3.5G - 4G applications "on our handsets anytime anywhere" while we are still struggling with 0 - 3G applications appears rather too ambitious. (see Table 4 for the cellular "generations").
EPILOGUE
The broad effort of Nigeria's National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA www.nasrda.org ) under the directorship of Prof. Robert Borrofice to give the country space presence – initiated with the weather observation satellite NigerSat-1 (designed and manufactured by a British Company Surrey Satellite Technology and launched in Russia on September 27, 2003) and followed up by the launching of telecommunications satellite NigComSat-1 (designed, built in China by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation., and also launched in China on May 14, 2007) - is commendable. Domesticating the design, building and operation of these satellites should constitute major efforts for the future, beginning now. More importantly, however, NASRDA should take into consideration the very healthy skepticism of the Nigerian public about the nation's space efforts in the presence of gnawing infrastructural inadequacies here on Earth, and therefore avoid unnecessary controversies.
In this regard the committee recently set up by the Federal Government comprised of officials of NIGCOMSAT, NCC, NITDA, the Communications Ministry and ISPAN to attempt to resolve the controversy is most welcome.
TABLE 1: SOME MAJOR TERRESTRIAL FREQUENCIES LICENSED AND ALLOCATED BY THE NCC
Source: http://www.ncc.gov.ng/index7_e
TABLE 2: NIGCOMSAT'S TRANSPONDERS; SATELLITE FREQUENCIES and THEIR PRINCIPAL APPLICATIONS
Sources:
http://www.eutelsat.com/news http://www.nigcomsat.org
TABLE 3: MAJOR INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE PROVIDERS - Contrasting with NIGCOMSAT
SOURCES:
INTELSAT http://www.intelsat.com
http://www.intelsat.com/flash
EUTELSAT http://www.eutelsat.com
SES AMERICOM http://www.ses-americom.com
NIGCOMSAT http://www.nigcomsat.org
TABLE 4: CELLULAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS - The "Generations"
References: http://electronics.howstuffwork
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
THE FOLLOWING IS AN ADVERTORIAL BY NIGCOMSAT IN SEVERAL NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS, eg ThePunch of Friday, July 27, 2007 , page 33
SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT: IRREFUTABLE FACTS OF THE DISPUTE BETWEEN THE NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE (NigComSat) LIMITED AND NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (NCC) On 5th May 2007, Mr. President approved specific spectrum allocation to NigComSat Limited and "total" frequency license for any telecommunication service NigComSat may wish to offer. It is germane to state that under the extant regulations, NigComSat as a government owned company is required to apply to the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication or the President for spectrum allocation and not to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). However, since Mr. President's approval has been communicated to NCC, the NCC ought to comply with Mr. President's directives. For the avoidance of doubt, the management of NigComSat Limited hereby wishes to inform he general public that: * One of the requests made to Mr. President was in respect of fixed satellite spectrum which is congruent to our operation. NigComSat does not require the approval of NCC on this because the spectrum is reserved and allocated for satellite communication on a primary basis by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Importantly, the spectrum is vacant and free, which explained why Mr. President allocated it to NigComSat. This approval was properly communicated to NCC by the Presidency to enable t to update its frequency chart. * NigComSat's Board of Directors never advised against going into the provision of telecommunications services. The board is made up of men of integrity who are passionate about the development of our country, and they all knew Mr. President had given approval for the company to offer any form of telecommunications service it is capable of offering; the Company's Memorandum of Association also permits it to go into telecommunications services; and all over the world, most companies that operate and manage communication satellites also provide such end-to-end services. Examples of such companies abound but the following should suffice due to constraint of space: Intelsat, Eutelstat, Telenor Network, Singtel/OPTUS, Korea Telecom, ASTRA (which states clearly that is vision is "to become the leading network services provider in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to the convergent fixed and mobie telecomes and media sectors"), Thuraya (which even provides rural communication services and SES AMERICOM (which owns 49% of QuetzSat and QuetzSat like most subsidiaries of SES AMERICOM, offers end to end services.) * Just in January this year, five months before NigComSat-1 was launched, NCC granted a 3G license to Mubadala, a company wholly owned by the Government of United Arab Emirate, to operate telecommunications services in Nigeria. It is interesting to also note that Mubadala is about to launch its own satellite to be managed by Al YahSat. * The Presidential approval for spectrum and frequency allocation already indicated that the commercial value of the spectrum will be capitalized in our equity. In essence, ultimately the Federal Government will hold only 40% of NigComSat's equity. As we write, Nigerian banks are ready to take 25% of our equity, which goes back to Nigerians who bought shares in the banks through the IPOs. The remaining 35% will be sold next year on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. * Opposition to our full operation is rooted in the fact that we are deploying state-of-the-art facilities to offer world class services at cheaper rates. Importantly, NigComSat Limited is positioned to bridge the digital divide in Nigeria by championing affordable and qualitative telecommunications services to rural and unserved urban centres. Our desire is to be able to have consumer broadband services to private homes as obtained abroad and also deliver Internet services to primary, secondary and tertiary institutions all over the country. This will definitely revolutionise our education system. The pertinent question to ask at this point is: Why should a regulatory agency that has the responsibility to ensure quality service delivery have problem with a company which mandate it to provide quality service delivery? * In any case, we are not providing GSM service. WE ARE DEPLOYING 3.5G-to-4G MULTIMEDIA NETWORK WHICH GUARANTEES OUR CUSTOMERS UNFETTERED ACCESS TO VOICE, DATA AND VIDEO SERVICES ON THEIR HANDSETS ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. * Other derivable benefits from NigComSat's application include:
II. Community Telecommunications Centres - NigComSat-1 will provide the much needed communication facilities in different communities. This will especially be beneficial to people living in inaccessible areas as they will have easier access to telecommunications services by the use of various technological solutions via NigComSat-1. III. Poverty Alleviation - Since information and knowledge are critical components of poverty alleviation strategies, NigComSat-1 holds the greatest promise for access to transformative information and will therefore play a key role in poverty reduction and giving a "voice" to the deprived in our society. IV. Stimulation of SMEs - Because of its potential to bridge the digital divide, NigComSat-1 will create an opportunity for SMEs to access global USS1.2 trillion business opportunities thus bolstering existing small and medium enterprises. V. Rural Telephony - One major area where satellite communications would have a tremendous impact is in the rural and remote communities that would otherwise have no significant access to communications. Now with the infrastructure provided by NigComSat-1, satellite terminals can be installed quickly in remote areas without any existing telecommunications infrastructure. NigComSat-1 will also provide access to reliable telecommunications services especially in places with difficult terrain for the viability for terrestrial network can benefit from NigComSat-1 by supplementing the existing telephone network thereby reaching the remotest parts of the country. VI. Political Awareness - NigComSat-1 will heighten political education and awareness through e-government. It will also promote good governance, transparency and socio-political integration of various communities and ethnic groups through the provision of better access to qualitative information. VII. Revenue Potential - With the deployment of various services such as e-education, e-commerce, e-banking, etc. , the projected revenue potential of NigComSat-1 is enormous. Business transactions can also be done on a real-time basis between partners such as suppliers and customers and on a global scale. VIII. Job Creation - A multiplier effect will result from pervasive services that NigComSat-1 will engender through its operation and partnership with various service providers who will in turn engage the services of a number of people directly and indirectly. IX. ICT backbone - NigComSat-1 provides a reliable backbone structure for carrying data, voice and video traffic. X. Reduce capital flight - It will provide opportunity for Nigeria and Nigerians to receive a sizeable portion of the age old capital flow because it will conserve a capital flight of over US$95 million spent annually on bandwidth by Nigerian users and over US$660 million by African users for telephone trunking and data transport service. XI. Improved Business Environment - NigComSat-1 will provide cheaper and more available communication through VOIP, Video conferencing, video streaming, etc. to enhance businesses and transactions and also opening up new business horizons and accelerating the growth of innovative services in different sectors of our economy. XII. Investment security - NigComSat-1 will improve security over corporate networks, process control, and resources and pipeline monitoring. These are some of the services that Nigerians will begin to enjoy from NigComSat-1 applications and as we plan to launch more satellites we want to ensure that we optimize and maximise the gains of NigComSat-1 in order to nudge investors to come on board. Painfully, these are valuable services that NCC is robbing Nigerians of by its actions. MANAGEMENT
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