By Kokumo Goodie, Lagos, Nigeria
The Managing Director of WaveTek Nigeria Limited, Mr Ken Spann has said the fibre solutions of the firm will enhance connectivity which will improve the quality of service in the country.
Spann who worked in Microsoft for over a decade both in Nigeria and the United States (U.S.) lamented that there were several applications developed by the software giant that could not be used in Nigeria because there was no internet capacity.
Speaking during the presentation of WaveTek E-band forum in Lagos, he said: “Despite the great software Microsoft & others produce, it was frustrating that much of it is not available for Nigerians due to the lack of ubiquitous, affordable Internet.”
He said: “Our point-to-point high-capacity wireless solutions offer high performance, cost-effective alternatives to fiber circuits for mobile backhaul, service provider, network extensions, and government / municipal network applications. It provides fiber-equivalent connections between locations by transmitting data over microwave or millimeter wave frequencies at gigabit speeds (2 Gbps) with future upgrade up to 10 Gbps and has the advantage of add/drop data ports, optional wire-speed AES encryption built-in and provides redundancy for existing fibre network.
Our solutions are applicable to meet enterprise needs such as Server centralization, Remote data storage and backup and leased line replacement.
He outlined its benefits to include the utilisation of Green Field Spectrum band for enhancement of QoS., adding that as backhaul and last mile, customers are able to carry up to 2Gb within every seven kilometers depending on customer availability requirement, thereby increasing its coverage.
It also extends enterprise local area networks (LANs) between buildings and sites at a fraction of the cost and time to implement fiber between facilities while its reusability of the spectrum and lack of interference between different operators make it an option of choice.
He added that the solution could provide redundancy to the existing fiber connections since the traditional MW has its limitations in terms of the capacity that it can transmit when used as a back-up solution while the provision of more capacity per backhaul links to support 4G/LTE as high capacity layer on top of the existing 2G/3G network infrastructure is also guaranteed.
Spann enjoined customers to select WaveTek as their strategic and reliable partner for all requirements around E-band as the firm will provide solutions to offload higher high capacity high priority traffic
He said customers will adopt WaveTek Virtual Fiber Solutions as alternatives/backup to fiber as a core network/transmission strategy, adding that it will also provide solutions to retain existing customers and attract more customers than competitors.
He said the use of the e-band 60-70 gigahertz (Ghz) in Nigeria will deepen internet penetration as well as enhance the realisation of the ambitious targets of the Federal Government’s National Broadband Plan, adding that dearth of infrastructure remained a challenge.
“To overcome the infrastructure challenges contributing to the slow uptake of the internet, microwave (MW) infrastructure fast became the dominant medium for delivering long distance transmission and in many cases backhaul capability.
“Challenges common to operators in the telecoms sector have been identified as; the high costs of right of way resulting in the high cost of leasing transmission infrastructure; long delays in the processing of permits; multiple taxation at federal, state, and local government levels and having to deal with multiple regulatory bodies; damage to existing fibre infrastructure as a result of cable theft, road works and other operations; and the lack of reliable, clean grid electricity supply.”
According to him, WaveTek began a global search for wireless technologies for rapid proliferation of the more than 14terabytes (Tb) of submarine capacity across Nigeria because it had much higher capacities than MW.
“We discovered that E-band 70/80GHz has multi gigabytes (Gb) properties, that can deliver high availability at short distances in Nigeria’s heavy rain regions.”
“Our next step was to convince the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that this spectrum was important for Nigeria and that it should be a shared spectrum due to lack of interference; light licensing low-cost models of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the U.S and Office of Communication (OFCOM) in the United Kingdom (UK) should be adapted as self-servicing model. Application process easy and fast,” Spann said, adding that the result of the two-year long efforts culminated in the NCC Stakeholders Forum.
He said the cost of ownership of the spectrum was lower than MW to deliver 2Gbps constant, lower than trenching new fiber or leased fiber in urban areas as well as lowest cost per Gb than any transmission modality.
He said its virtual fiber solutions will deepen internet penetration and improve quality of service.
