By Shina Badaru

Abuja. July 27, 2008. The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ernest Ndukwe has confirmed that Nigerian mobile phone subscribers will enjoy free, rather than paid blocking of stolen phones when an anti-theft scheme to be activated by all operators goes live before year end.

The regulatory road map also envisions that by year end, operators will have a database of the identity of pre-paid phone subscribers to assist law enforcement agencies in stemming the growing incidence of crimes linked with mobile and allied telephony services.

Hitherto, industry stakeholders had expressed concern following indications that phone subscribers may be required to pay a monthly subscription fee to enjoy the service that enables their handsets to be blacklisted off all networks linking into the centralised ID registry in the event of theft.

That speculation has been put to rest with Ndukwe's confirmation of the regulatory stance on the issue during which he also says a licence has been issued Netvisa to create a common platform for telecoms operators to offer the service at no additional cost to mobile phone users nationwide.

Ndukwe, who spoke exclusively to the Technology Times Intelligence Unit in Abuja last week as part of a mid-year telecoms market survey examining trends and developments that shaped the Nigerian telecoms market in 2008, also says that fundamental transformations have been witnessed since the introduction of Unified Access Service Licences (UASLs) while the next priority attention is ensuring universal spread of telecoms services across Nigeria.

The market-led survey publication by Technology Times to be unveiled globally August 26, this year, also assesses telecoms dynamics driving the industry, policy and regulatory issues as well as products and services covering providers in access technologies across mobile, fixed, satellite, broadband and dial-up Internet as the telecoms market heads towards the 100 million line installed capacity mark.

To further sustain the Nigerian telecoms market growth, Ndukwe says that "what we have arranged is that subscribers will not need to pay for anything."

According to him, the planned stolen phone blocking scheme, "is something that the NCC will like to fund as much as possible and it is not a major funding requirement. So, instead of subjecting the subscribers to having to pay for the service, we have decided that we will provide it on a platform that we will work out with the operators so that it's free to the subscribers and that would enable everybody to enjoy the service and no one is left out."

To also ensure that no operator is left out of the scheme, he adds that NCC is working with operators to ensure they can plug into a common platform managed by the Central Identity Registry service provider, Netvisa, to ensure an efficient and centralised operation of the scheme.

"Yes there will be a common platform. We have chosen a company called Netvisa and that company has been licensed by the Commission to provide the service and it's on that platform that this would be done", he adds

Official data released by NCC indicates that at mid-year, the market continues to witness impressive growth with the nation's installed telecoms capacity heading for the 100 million mark.

Nigeria's telecoms subscriber base reached a mid-year peak of 49.6million lines as current installed capacity of 94.9 million brings the nation's teledensity to 33.72.

Total active lines in the telecoms market has also grown from 41.9 million to 47.2 million with the mobile GSM sector accounting for 44.9 million; fixed wired/wireless service providers recording marginal drop from 1.57 million to 1.53million while mobile CDMA services grew from 384,315 lines to 734,444 lines.

Giving into plans underway by NCC to broaden access to telecoms services beyond the nation's urban centres, Ndukwe says the "vision is to ensure that all parts of the country are covered by telecommunications and ICT services and that nobody in Nigeria is left out. The USPF is actually an intervention fund that is set up to accelerating the rollout of service to the rural, underserved and un-served areas of the country.

"You find that I used the word accelerated very carefully because maybe in 10, 15 years the services will be everywhere. But our government wants the services to be there as soon as possible. So what the intervention fund does is to bring the time that these services will get to the locations closer than farther", he adds noting that despite misgivings initially expressed in the wake of plans to unify telecoms services, the programme has succeeded.

Following the expiration of the five-year market exclusivity granted mobile GSM operators, NCC had introduced regulatory reforms that allows operators to offer a combination of fixed, mobile, data and other services on their networks after obtaining a licence for Unified Access Service.

Unlike in the past when the mobile CDMA sector could only offer limited mobility services, the ability to offer national mobile roaming has seen more market aggressiveness that has resulted in lower entry cost and cheaper call tariffs to phone users, a trend driven by entry of aggressive new players like Visafone and injection of more investment funds into existing players like Multi-Links, Starcomms, Reltel Wireless, among others.

"We believe in what we call the three "Fs" in NCC and that is we have to be fair, firm and forthright and that guides our actions in NCC", says Ndukwe who says that in retrospect, introduction of UASLs has brought increased competition in the market.

"Another very important thing that guides us is that we consult widely. But after a consultation, a regulatory body must take a decision once we know that it is for the common good. All those people who thought that it would not work are beneficiaries to that unified access licences today. We knew it would work because we knew the market was ripe for it; convergence in the industry dictated it and for a developing country like Nigeria, it was important that it happens. I think many of them have actually come back and started saying you did a good thing.  They have started to commend the NCC for their action. But that is the nature of the business and that's also the importance of being firm and resolute when you know that something is going to be for the good of everyone. It has happened many times in our experience with telecoms regulation in Nigeria", he adds.