Lagos – The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to consider licensing multiple Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) per geopolitical zone.
ATCON President, Mr Lanre Ajayi, gave the advice in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
The statement applauded NCC for coming up with the concept of InfraCos which it said had the capability to address the issue of non openness to backhaul access.
”We are also particularly concerned that licence is being limited to one operator per defined geographic zone.
”We believe that having just one operator in a zone creates monopoly and it may inadvertently bring us back to the dreadful days of NITEL.
”We, therefore, canvass for multiplicity of licence per zone.
”This will not only create options and competition but will also increase diversity on various routes where cables are to be laid, thereby increasing reliability on our networks,” the statement quoted Ajayi as saying.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
It also expressed concern at the delay in the licensing of InfraCos operators.
NAN reports that in 2013, the NCC introduced the concept of InfraCos to help increase internet penetration in the country.
NCC had designed the InfraCos policy where such multiple infrastructure companies had to be issued licences to fast-track the deployment of metro fibre cable to un-served areas in the country.
The regulatory body planned to license seven companies as broadband InfraCos in Lagos and the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
In January 2015, after the bidding exercise, MainOne Cable was announced winner for the Lagos area, with IHS grabbing the licence for the North Central Zone.
The remaining five InfraCos had yet to be licensed. (NAN)