NCC licenses Avanti for satellite space segment in Nigeria

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved and presented a licence for the landing right permit to Avanti for Hylas4 Satellite Space segment in the country.

The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, made the presentation on Monday in Abuja.

Danbatta described land permit as an authorisation which operators require for their satellite to be allowed to beam its signal over the territorial integrity of a country.

He identified Avanti as the operator that had invested in the installation of international gateways and data centres in Africa.

The vice chairman said that Avanti’s high capacity facilities would be encouraged to deploy services via satellite to serve the undeserved and unsaved areas.

He said that it would also bridge digital divide currently being experienced in the country.

Danbatta said that the commission had articulated several initiatives towards ensuring increased broadband penetration and connectivity to the rural areas.

He said that the commission had also remained resolute in driving its eight- point agenda towards facilitating the development of a knowledge-driven, inclusive, globally competitive and prosperous Nigeria.

According to him, it 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.

“It is this same satellite that has been deployed to extend coverage in Nigerian territory.

“This satellite uses the latest Ka-band satellite technology 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 operators,’’ he added.

In his remarks, Mr Austin Nwaulune, the Director of Spectrum Administration,NCC, said that the innovation would make service delivery to subscribers very efficient, better quality in services and payless.

“This will make service delivery very efficient and we believe that subscribers will pay less and the good thing is that subscribers will have better quality in their services.

“What we are looking for is number because we represent everybody so the more, we do not have much, the more merry,” he said.

The Director, Chief Regulatory Officer, Avanti, Mrs Ann VandenBroucke, explained that the company was looking at investing in infrastructure and economic growth.

VandenBroucke said that this was realised through an echo system, adding that they were looking for strategic partners to develop applications for an atom.

“We are a technology company, employment and economic growth and it’s facility through the echo system.

“We are working with the mobile operators here and that means that we can bring faster internet services.

“We are not providing satellite TV, we are internet in the sky so what we want to bring to Nigeria is immediate access because the satellite is there, it works everywhere.

“It enables immediate broadband access to anybody, everywhere,” she said.