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From:
alukome@a... Date: Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:38 pm
Subject: NITEL and the Past, Present and Future of ICT in Nigeria
July 15, 2003
NITEL and the Past, Present and Future of ICT in Nigeria
Dear Colleagues:
This is my last-but-one write-up in this series basically on telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria (with emphasis on the SAT-3 fiber project). This write-up is a compilation about the status of NITEL vis-Ã -vis ICT, away from our usual accurate complaints that the land-phones do not always work in Nigeria!
First, even NCC has had problems with NITEL:
QUOTE
http://www.ncc.gov.ng/telecommunications_policy.htm
National Policy on Telecommunications
Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL)
NITEL was the national operator and monopoly service provider for domestic and international services. This had serious repercussions in terms of inefficiency, high cost of service, and lack of universal access………
UNQUOTE
Despite years of being on the ground, NITEL's offerings with respect to ICT have not been spectacular at al, although things are improving:
QUOTE
http://www.nigeriabusinessinfo.com/telecoms.htm
Communications and Information Technology in Nigeria (Reviewed, 29th Dec 2001)
…The main trunk routes have been digitalised and operate in the 140 to 155 mbls configuration. Government has also promised the digitalisation of others in the planned south Atlantic Telecommunication/ West African submarine Cable (SAT3/WASC) project. The project is planned to link Africa with Europe and Asia and it is to be financed by a consortium of International telecommunication operators in Africa, Europe and Asia.
On the provision of Internet Services, the Nigerian government has also made efforts with an initial capacity of 5,500 points starting with Lagos as the main point of presence (POP) with 3,000 ports. However, this can only be interpreted to show that less than five per cent of Nigerians have access to the Internet. According to a report from the United Nations, the total Internet connectivity in Africa is about 50,000 people and more than 80 per cent of this number is in South Africa. Only 9,000 of this figure are Nigerians. However with the deregulation of the telecommunications industry, 108 approval for licences have so far been given out. Of this number, 48 companies have paid for their licences.
UNQUOTE
QUOTE
http://www.times-publications.com/publications/corporate_africa/articles/Nitel.html
NITEL JOINS THE TELECOM MILLENNIUM
…In recent years, the network has seen massive developments, including the current expansion in the Federal Capital of Abuja, aimed at bringing some 40,000 digital lines to the network. Some 100,000 lines have been commissioned to the network in the South West Zone and work is still underway to bring 60,000 digital lines to the network in the North West Zone.
More than 70% of NITEL's network has been digitalised, and expectations are that the entire network will become fully digital inside 2 years.
Optical fibres are being laid in various parts of the country to boost transmission of data and large volume traffic which will result from expanding the network. These are expected to complement the International Gateways in Lagos, Enugu and Kaduna.
The Government's decree is that 40% of NITEL is to be sold to a strategic partner, with international expertise and resources to manage the network. A further 20 per cent will be sold to Nigerian nationals and 40 per cent retained by Government.
UNQUOTE
QUOTE
http://www.ncc.gov.ng/telecommunications_policy.htm
National Policy on Telecommunications
Internet Services
The provision of an Internet backbone with an initial capacity of 5,500 ports has commenced with Lagos as the main point of presence (POP) with 3,000 ports. Abuja is another POP with 1, 000 ports that has also been completed. In addition, Kaduna, Bauchi and Enugu with 500 ports each were completed in 1999. All POPs are interconnected by a 2Mb/s digital transmission link…….
Optical Fibre Cable
A large capacity submarine optical fibre cable has been installed to link Lagos, Warri, Bonny and Port Harcourt. The same fibre cable has been extended from Port Harcourt to Enugu and Calabar through Aba. This system operates in the 622Mb/s range. Another fibre cable to link Enugu to Abuja is under construction. Optical fibre ring networks have also been installed in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Kaduna and Abuja.
NITEL is also participating in the planned South Atlantic Telecommunications/West African Submarine Cable (SAT 3/WASC/SAFE) project linking Africa with Europe and Asia. The project is to be financed by a consortium of international telecommunications operators in Africa, Europe and Asia.
The introduction of optical fibre cables, which facilitates increased traffic handling, will reduce operating costs and thereby, the service costs to the consuming public.
UNQUOTE
But as one commentator has put it:
QUOTE
http://www.worldmarketsanalysis.com/sample_pages/5.html
Africa Regional: New Telecoms Cable to Revolutionise Communications
Coastal Cabling Not Enough
Although the provision of a high-capacity cabling system that branches directly through Europe, Africa and into the Far East is a major step forward for African telecommunications, until national networks are up and running, the benefits of this new capacity will not be unleashed on the national business environment. The Sat-3/WASC cable may well land in Lagos (Nigeria), but until beleaguered national telecommunications provider NITEL has upgraded its national transmission backbone, it cannot serve the bandwidth requirements for the rest of Nigeria. 'Apart from South Africa, no single African country generates enough traffic to justify the construction of a cable linking it to any other,' states a 1998 briefing report on cable and satellite projects published by the World Bank. 'Co-operation among countries is necessary to accumulate such traffic.'
Certainly, at least two previous regional fibre projects have failed to get off the ground: Project Oxygen - a global submarine cable project with landing points around Africa - and Afrilink - a submarine cable that was to incorporate coastal states. In fact, the Sat-3/WASC/SAFE cable itself is the amalgam of what had been three separate projects until 1998.
UNQUOTE
Perhaps the most current summary of the status of NITEL is provided in AITECH's excellent 2003 Yearbook. It is a mine of information, and provides both the challenges and opportunities in ICT in Nigeria, particularly in areas that NITEL has not been able to fill:
QUOTE
Nigerian Chapter of the 2003 AITECH Yearbook
http://aitecafrica.com/act2003/Nigerian_report/Background%20information%20on%20Nigeria's%20telecommunications%20Market.pdf
The structure of the fixed line sector has changed in step with the changes in political administration. Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL), the state-owned fixed line operator, had an installed capacity of some 720,270 lines in 2000 but only around half of these (497,070) were connected. There has been little if no roll out since then, with a penetration rate of some 0.43%. Official statistics are subject to due diligence, but perhaps half of these connected lines are still analogue. This dilapidated network is highly unreliable. The sector was first deregulated in
1992 by the Nigerian Communications Commission decree, which facilitated the entry of the private sector. In order to meet the demand for communications, nearly thirty licences were issued under the military regime of General Sani Abacha to private telecommunications operators (called PTOs). The classes of licences granted under the decree to these 'PTOs' included private network links (PNL), community telephony, public payphones and value added network services (VANS).
Not all of these have become operational, but those which have have delpoyed a variety of wireless local loop (WiLL) networks using AMPS, TDMA, GSM and CDMA technologies centred in Lagos (the commercial capital) but also in other areas with high addressable unmet demand such as in Port Harcourt and Enugu the oil-rich Niger Delta and Abuja (the federal capital). These 'PTOs' have between them rolled out a further several hundred thousand lines…..
A second key factor has been the lack of an accessible nationwide transmission infrastructure. Although NITEL has fibre rings in some cities and a limited fibre and microwave infrastructure (see Business networks), it is very limited in scope and does not have the spare capacity to cope with additional traffic. Mobile operators have been hampered in their ability to link together their base stations and mobile switches around the country, whilst internet service providers (ISPs) are
constrained in their ability to roll out points of presence (PoPs) to secondary towns or cities.
Alternative transmission infrastructure was desperately needed, with operators investing in satellite transmission or building out their own microwave infrastructure…..
…The incumbent NITEL does offer analogue leased line services but it does not have enough E1 trunks for its own transmission requirements and offers a poor quality of service. The private sector have moved into this vacuum and the business network market is dominated by the private telecommunication operators ('PTOs') and satellite service providers. Many of the PTOs are multifaceted communication providers, offering voice and data services over WiLL networks, frequently offering ISP services, and in many cases also providing IT services as well……..
NITEL
NITEL does not offer X.25, Frame Relay or ATM services. The bulk of its transmission capacity is consumed with the carriage of its own voice and Internet protocol (IP) traffic. The carrier's backbone comprises a mix of fibre, microwave and VSAT links. It has fibre rings in the cities of Lagos, Abuja and Enugu, as well as fibre cables linking Enugu to Port Harcourt (via Aba and Umuahia) and from Aba to Calabar via Uyo. In addition it operates a submarine fibre cable linking
Lagos with Port Harcourt via Bonny, Brass, Warri, Escravos and Forcados. The carrier also operates microwave radio links, many of which are analogue, using both PDH and SDH protocols.
It otherwise uses VSAT for connectivity, with a VSAT hub located at Lanlate. In the fiercely competitive Internet market, NITEL operates its own ISP with points of presence (PoPs) in Lagos, Kaduna, Bauchi and Enugu. These PoPs are linked by 2 Mbps transmission links, and international bandwidth through the gateway in Lagos of 2 Mbps.
NITEL has three international earth stations, located in Lagos (Victoria Island), Enugu and Abuja. It has historically relied on satellite links for its upstream international bandwidth, but during 2002 was connected to the Sat-3/ West African Submarine Cable (WASC). NITEL is one of the owners of the consortium, and has a five-year exclusivity within Nigeria on access to the bandwidth available on this cable. Because NITEL does not yet have a national transmission backbone, the
long-haul international bandwidth made available cannot be distributed to PoPs or switches around the country. Other licensed service providers have sought access to this capacity, including Globacom, and it is likely that NITEL will retail this capacity onwards.
UNQUOTE
So there you have it!
If I read it right, the fiber extensions to Port Harcourt from Lagos and onwards to Enugu and Abuja, or to Ibadan, Ilorin, etc. were not really part of the SAT-3 extension, but part of the NITEL effort to provide a fiber backbone for its voice transmission needs. The question we need to ask is that with the availability of SAT-3, whether NITEL is REALLY poised to provide bandwidth capacity both in the present and foreseeable future for high-speed data transmission, Internet, video, etc. in addition to voice, and if it cannot, whether it should be stopping others who can!
We may not like NITEL, but it will be a major player in ICT in Nigeria for some time to come. It will therefore do well for all of us to closely study the information in this Yearbook (and other places) about NITEL so that we can properly position ourselves with respect to NITEL - both in its present form and its possibly privatized form - as we all work towards improving ICT in Nigeria.
By the way, NITEL does not have its own website, from all available information that I have. I stand to be corrected.
Best wishes all.
Bolaji Aluko
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