Governmental Factors, Others Threatens ISPs Existence in Nigeria’s Telecom Space – VDT

The Group Managing Director of VDT Communications, Mr Biodun Omoniyi disclosed that many factors have contributed to the steady reduction in the number of Internet Service Providers actively operating in Nigeria’s telecom space.

He highlighted governmental factors such as harsh regulations, multiple taxations and a whole lot of other factors that have moved to push them into extinction.

Omoniyi who made this disclosure while speaking at the commemoration VDT 20th anniversary in Lagos said the government must not only promote indigenous businesses but also strive to protect them.

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Recall, Business Remarks reported that the total number of licensed ISPs in the country has increased to 163. However, not all of them are actively providing services as the stiff competition in the industry has forced many out of business.

Also, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had in a report, identified competition with mobile network operators (MNOs), harsh business operating environment, and inadequate national broadband infrastructure as some of the problems that have led to the depletion of ISPs in the country.

Tasking FG, Omoniyi noted that government must change its approach of insisting that businesses compete or go into extinction.

He also urged the Federal Government to do more to empower indigenous businesses to create jobs and boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He however called for the establishment of what he called a “special fund’ to intervene in the sector.

Expressing optimism towards the actualisation of the Nigerian Broadband Plan (NBP) 2020-2025, the GMD said industry players will work towards ensuring that the country’s target of 90 per cent broadband coverage by 2025.

It is to be noted that Nigeria’s broadband plan seeks to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria at a minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas, with effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population and a landmass penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data.

According to Omoniyi, VDT Communications, through its connectivity services for enterprise and retail customers, would be able to connect more people and organisations, thereby contributing its quota towards achieving Nigeria’s broadband plan.

According to him, “VDT provides services such as enterprise connectivity and corporate internet to all parts of Nigeria via national carrier backbone. Retail Service; 4G LTE Broadband internet service; SME and APN Services among others. VDT Communications successfully scaled our service infrastructure to 99.9 per cent uptime since 2015. We now generally guarantee 99.999 per cent service availability through the use of multiple carrier trunks while maintaining low latency, that will help Nigeria achieve its broadband penetration target.”

On the journey so far, Omoniyi said the service provision of the firm is nationwide with 143 Points of Presence (PoPs) and counting across every state and Abuja.

“With this spread, we are closer to our customers. This has helped us to offer prompt and high quality service support to delight our customers nationwide.

“With all this in place coupled with continual innovation and development, the stage is set for VDT to continue to play the leading role in the Nigeria telecom industry and provide premium quality service to our customers.

“This is imperative even as major revolutions in the telecommunication industry like the 5G, IoT, AI and the Big Data, unfold in our presence,” Omoniyi added.