Nigerians will soon begin to enjoy reduced communication tariff with the introduction of single dots cable, laying a platform for all communication service providers in the country.
This was made known at the handing over of the proposed draft guidelines, for ‘Grant of Access on Federal Highways, Right-of-Way for Information Communication Technology Service Providers (ICTSPs), to the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, by a joint committee of the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Communication Technology, in Abuja.
The committee, which was headed by the director of Highway Research Development and Planning, Bala Dan Shehu, was setup to consider ways in which appropriate measures could be put in place on federal highways, to enhance the laying of communication cables.
“Because of the plethora of communication companies and their practices of bastardising the right-of-way, the country has not really derived maximum benefit from the laying of communication cables. This gave rise to the right-of-way management, to help coordinate the provision of communication infrastructures to Nigerians,” Onolememen stated, while receiving the committee’s report in his office.
The Minister stated that the existing collaboration between his ministry and the Ministry of Communication Technology has led to the standardisation of construction works on new roads in the country in order to provide dots that would enable the laying of a uniform cable platform for all communication service providers in the country.
This he believes will save highways in the country from damages that occur when individual service providers excavate roads to create dots for their cables.
According to him, the uniform cable platform will reduce the cost of telecommunication services to the final consumer, as service providers would share the uniform cable platform.
He insisted that in the long run, service charges to consumers will inevitably be reduced.
On her part, the Minister of Communication and Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, commended the effort of the committee in drafting a guideline, stating that it would correct the practice where roads are been destroyed in laying of fibre optic cables by different telecommunication service providers. She said that it would also accelerate the provision of communication infrastructures across the country.