By Technology Times Staff Reporter
Jim Ovia, Chairman of Visafone Communications Limited (right) and President Goodluck Jonathan at a recent event held in Lagos to raise money for the building of a church in the President’s hometown in Otuoke, Bayelsa State
Lagos. April 16, 2013: A subsidiary owned by Jim Ovia, the Chairman of Visafone Communications Limited has been issued a long distance licence that will enable the company play in the lucrative segment of carrying telecoms traffic across Nigeria.
Technology Times checks show that the National Long Distance Operation (NLDO) will allow Cyberspace, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) owned by Ovia, the former Managing Director and CEO of Zenith Bank, to join Alheri Engineering Company Limited, owned by businessman Aliko Dangote, swelling licensees in the category to 10 companies.
Under the terms of the 20-year licence, Cyberspace will transform from being just an ISP but also play in the plum sector of carrying traffic for other players in Nigeria as it can now “construct own and operate transmission networks for carrying long distance telecommunications services such as voice, data and video within Nigeria.”
With the new licence deal, Ovia’s Cyberspace will swell the rank of licensees in the category to 10 including one hitherto granted businessman mogul, Aliko Dangote has been issued the same licence through his Alheri Engineering Company Limited.
Dangote also closed a deal in which has been ceded a section of the PHCN national grid is building a national fibre optic link to carry traffic on the existing power lines through his wholly-owned Dancom Technologies.
Dangote is building a national fibre over power lines following a concession pact with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in a concession deal that is expected to last 15 years in the first instance.
Following this PHCN granted concession on the national grids to two companies Alheri and Phase3 Telecoms to build fibre optic backbone (OFB) that will be embedded in the High Voltage Transmission Towers of the electricity utility company.
Meanwhile, other companies that have been issued long distance service licences ahead of Cyberspace include MTS First Wireless Limited; Suburban Telecoms Limited; Backbone Connectivity Network Nig. Limited; Traffic Network Services Limited and Fibre Tech West Africa Limited (formerly issued to Fred & Johnson Engineering Company Ltd), according to the telecoms regulator.
Others include Phase 3 Telecoms Limited; Gateway Telecoms Integrated Services Limited and Steam Broadcasting & Communications Ltd.
It is coming just as the telecoms regulator says it has commenced the implementation of a new management to pursue a new corporate vision.
NCC says it has adopted a new corporate vision following the take-off of the new five-year strategic management plan of the telecoms regulatory agency.
Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of NCC says that the regulator will now pursue a new vision “to be a responsive world class communications regulatory organisation.”
Hitherto, NCC’s mission statement was to “support a market driven communications industry and promote universal access”
Juwah says the new management plan is the outcome of over 12 months of industry consultations in a process managed by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) with a cross section of industry stakeholders and NCC staffs making input at various stages of its articulation.
The formal unveiling of the new SMP will serve as a roadmap for the future, taking into consideration the current and emerging trends in the industry and the numerous expectations of the diverse stakeholders, says Juwah underscoring that “the SMP document is a living document which must be consulted regularly to ensure that the Commission is on track towards achieving the objectives which have been collectively articulated.”
According to him, “a robust SMP like ours has many purposes such as ensuring the alignment of day-to-day work to the Commission’s strategy; prioritizing programmes and projects to achieve NCC’s goals and objectives; ensuring optimal use of NCC’s recourses; providing an objective basis for performance monitoring and management, and meeting the Commission’s vision and mission.”
Also commenting, Tony Ojobo, Director of Public Affairs of NCC say the agency’s new vision and mission stem from the dynamic nature of the industry today.
The idea of the new mission designed to support market-driven communications industry and promote universal access is because of the new direction the industry is taking, especially in the area of convergence and frontiers of broadband Internet services which are all aimed at providing quality access to all, he adds.
The new vision to be a responsive communications industry regulator will put NCC in a position to be able to quickly respond to industry dynamics for optimum delivery to all industry stakeholders especially the consumers, Ojobo says.
The overarching principle behind the new mission and vision is “to promote an information rich environment that can compete globally through the provision of quality communications service”, according to him.
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