Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in its bid to bridge the digital divide in internet coverage in the country, has given Landing Right Permit approval to AVANTI Communications Group, a UK- based satellite firm, for the provision of commercial satellite communication services in Nigeria.
The Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Dambatta, made this known yesterday during the official presentation of the certificate to the satellite company.
Speaking through the Director of Spectrum Administration in the commission, Mr Austin Nwaulune, who represented him, the NCC boss said that satellite communication is an alternative to broadband service delivery.
According to him, “given the enormous opportunities offered by satellite communication as an alternative model to broadband service delivery, the commission has approved a Landing Right Permit for the HYLAS-4 satellite space segment over Nigerian territory.
“This landing permit is the first of its kind in satellite communications in Nigeria as a direct consequence of one of our operators employing the services of the satellite operator (AVANTI). AVANTI is the only operator that has invested in the installation of national gateways and data centres in Africa.
“AVANTI has a fleet of satellites and one of them which is called HYLAS-4, is used to extend coverage to West, Central and Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is this HYLAS-4 that has been deployed to extend coverage over Nigeria territory.
This satellite uses the latest Ka-band satellite to and has additional capacity to the tune of 2GHz. This high capacity service has come to Nigeria through an International gateway that has been deployed by one of our local operator.
‘’With such high capacity facility in place and easily accessible, our local operators can now be more encouraged to deploy services via satellite to serve the underserved/unserved areas hence bridging the digital divide currently being experienced by the nation.”
He added one of the objectives of the 8-point agenda is to increase broadband penetration especially to unserved/underserved areas.
Director, Regulatory, AVANTI, Ann Vandenbroucke, said that AVANTI is extremely proud to be the first satellite company to be granted a landing permit and appreciated the commission’s regulatory excellence transparency.
“We are extremely proud to be the first foreign satellite operator to be granted Landing Permit in Nigeria. When I mentioned it to our CEO, he didn’t think for a second and he said I am going there but the board and the AGM stopped him from being here.
“On his behalf I am passing his appreciation for the regulatory excellence and transparency of the NCC in the process of awarding AVANTI as the first operator of landing permit’’ she stated.
On AVANTI’s investment she said the organisation which started in 2010 has invested $2.6 billion in the satellite and infrastructure and has built two gateway stations in Africa for quality service, one in Lagos and the other in South Africa in order to improve internet penetration in Africa.
