REGULATING SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND ASSOCIATED TECHNOLOGIES IN NIGERIA: IMPERATIVES FOR THE YEAR

Transcription

1 REGULATING SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND ASSOCIATED TECHNOLOGIES IN NIGERIA: IMPERATIVES FOR THE YEAR By: Engr N Johnson ASINUGO Managing Director, Telecom Technologies International Limited Victoria Island, Lagos. 1 INTRODUCTION To put the regulatory requirements for the satellite services into perspective, it is best to start with an appreciation of the satellite systems from an orbital mechanics point of view. 1.1 Satellites on the Geostationary Orbit: From the geostationary and geosynchronous orbit which is located some 22,300 miles from the surface of the earth, there are two forms of satellite-based telecommunications services that are available today. These are: (a) Fixed Satellite Services: the form that is used by NITEL for the carriage of high capacity international traffic and for DOMSAT services, or used by the NTA for the distribution of television programs nationally, or used by the various NCC licensed VSAT operators for the carriage of national and international traffic. In Nigeria, the fixed satellite service providers are INTELSAT and PANAMSAT. I stand to be corrected that as of today, Nigeria has not yet joined RASCOM formally by signing the Convention - RASCOM being the only other known active service provider of fixed satellite services in this part of the world. (b) Mobile Satellite Services: where the transmitting earth station is relatively small and mobile and primarily supports thin route telecommunication services for those whose activities take them from one point to another, nationally or internationally. In Nigeria, all mobile satellite service providers make use of the INMARSAT constellation of satellites. 1.2 Satellites on non-geostationary orbits: Recent advances in all facets of telecommunications engineering, from stable intersatellite inks to more robust signal modulation schemes and even advances in protocol designs and timing algorithms have made it possible for man to defy the logic of Mr Ed Clarke,first espoused in 1953, about the feasibility of sustainable telecommunications from a platform placed only the geostationary orbit. Today, telecommunications services are being offered from Low Earth Orbits (LEOs), Intermediate Circular Orbits (ICOs), Higly Elliptical Orbits (HEOs) and

2 other orbits in-between. And these exotic services are available from companies with esoteric names such as Iriduim, Teledesic, Geostar, ICO and the like. 2 THE REGULATION OF SATELLITE SERVICES IN NIGERIA 2.1 The Present Situation Up until 1988, the regulation of satellite communication services in Nigeria by the Ministry of Communications was near perfect. Indeed, it had to be. There was only one corporate entity that was regulated: NITEL. And not that there was that much to regulate about NITEL s satellite services anyway. The ITU had simplified matters by allocating frequency bands for satellite communication on worldwide basis. So the Frequency Allocation Section of the Technical Services Department of the Ministry of Communications really had no part to play - following the ITU allocations. There again NITEL was the Nigerian Signatory to INTELSAT - the owner and operator of the constellation of the satellites for fixed satellite services. In this capacity, NITEL participated in different fora where decisions were made on the specific frequency assignments for individual transmissions (carriers) within the frequency bands allocated to the respective services by the ITU. The Ministry of Communications, as Party to the Convention of this inter-governmental agency, participated in high level policy meetings that developed and monitored the policy objectives of the organization. A slight disturbance to this rather neat arrangement occurred sometime in 1988 when Nigeria joined INMARSAT, the service provider for mobile satellite services. Despite very vocal protests from the then NITEL management using the worn-out arguments of potential revenue loss (even from cities and locations where no NITEL infrastructure existed but where businesses were suffering daily losses due to lack for telecom services) and the ubiquitous, patriotic-sounding, concern for national security, the Ministry of Communications decided to authorize the introduction of mobile satellite services in Nigeria. The regulation of end-users of mobile satellite services was divided between NITEL and the Ministry of Communications on the basis of some logic that some of us have not yet understand even till this day. In brief, NITEL issued end users an Operating License for $10,000 for Inmarsat-A services plus a $5/minute surcharge on traffic. Those who paid for their licences in 1988 got a piece of paper some 9 months later as their licence. This piece of paper was actually half of a standard page - on which the so called licence was photocopied. And it was issued to payers of a $10,000 license fee some 9 months later. The Ministry of Communications, on the other hand, charged a modest fee of about N2,000 for Frequency Allocation (which had already been done by the ITU as mentioned earlier on) and a few thousand Naira for Equipment Type Approval an equipment whose sophistication and complexity were probably beyond the

3 approval competence of regular test laboratories in Europe. While the very low fees charged by the Ministry of Communications were tolerable, the real killer was the form that was supposed to be filled by the enduser. Amongst the questions asked were: Transmistter location Receiver Location Maximum radiated power Minimum transmitter power etc. Please note that we are dealing here with the licensing of Mobile Satellite Earth Stations! This regulatory status quo was maintained for another seven years or so when the first VSAT license was issued by the newly created regulatory body - the Nigerian Communications Commission. Again, the regulation of VSAT satellite services, at least from the point of view of the end-user, became a problem even though the issues involved were straight forward. The potential operator obtains an Operator Licence from NCC, then obtains a Frequency Licence from the Ministry of Communications for frequency allocation that was made in far away Geneva several years ago, and finally obtains his spectrum or bandwidth from NITEL, the INTELSAT Signatory. Those (only one so far, I believe) lucky to escape the charges for INTELSAT space segment, as presented by NITEL, got the space segment services of PANAMASAT. Please note that the issue of passing through three regulatory bodies for a VSAT licence in Nigeria today is not limited to the lengthy processing time alone: each regulating arm shocks the potential operator with a predatory fee that, more often than not, was set arbitrarily and with little sensitivity to either the pains of an investor or current practices in other countries with socio-economic profiles similar to Nigeria s profile. While a few of these obnoxious requirements (notably the charging of $10,000 per Inmarsat-A terminal by NITEL) have been amended there is an important reason why this historical perspective is being presented in this paper today, as sordid as some of the regulatory requirements may sound. In the parlance of the computer industry, Garbage in = Garbage Out. When a regulatory agency does not appreciate or understand thoroughly the different sub-systems that make up the industry that is being regulated, then it is most likely that the end-users will be saddled with unreasonable or absurd regulatory requirements.

4 2.2 The Regulatory Gaps Today Several gaps exist in the regulation of present day satellite communications services and these gaps would have kept a better focused regulatory authority very busy indeed. Some of these are: (a) The absence of a National Frequency Assignment Register, even though this should have been a basic document available on demand to potential system operators, investors and research persons; (b) The absence of a regulatory document for the use of space segments from satellite operators other than Intelsat and Inmarsat; (c) The regulatory requirements for the use of space segment services of Intelsat and Inmarsat in the new dispensation (that is the privatiziation of the formerly intergovenmental agencies). (d) The regulation of services from satellites in non-geostationary orbits - and this becomes more ominous as plans exist to marry the services from nongeostationary satellites and terrestrial cellular services in the GSM band into a seamless network.if regulations currently exit in the areas listed above, then please could the public be directed as to where to find them? 2.3 Imperatives of the next 24 months (mid 1999 to mid Year 2001) Individually and collectively, we are all aware of the changes and challenges of present day telecommunications environment. From an engineering point of view it has been speculated by those who should know that advances in telecommunications delivery systems in the next 5 years will dwarf the mind boggling innovations of the past 20 years. From an economic point of view, information technology of which telecommunications is the transportation vehicle, will determine the placement of nations on the league table of developed and developing countries. From a regulatory point of view, life will become even more difficult for regulators as telecommunication services become more dependent on wireless delivery mechanisms - from wireless local area networks to wireless local loops. The regulatory agencies of the telecommunications sector in Nigeria must realize that time is not on their side. The world cannot stop for us to get our acts together and begin to do those basic things for which the regulatory agencies were created in the first place. It is sad, very sad indeed, to listen to a regulator blame the sorry state of frequency management in Nigeria today on the influx of

5 equipment from all over the world. How can we regulate the different radio systems from Japan, Korea, America and Europe we are asked with a sense of seriousness that is also pathetic. Yet we are told the next minute that we live in a Global Village- How can we live in a Global Village and yet decide that our radios should come from only one country of the world? The reality of course is that most of the regulators today are ill equipped technically and materially to discharge professionally the responsibilities that they are saddled with. How many of them realise that the basic equations for the calculation of interference potentials in the radio spectrum, for a combination of signal types, and the various C/I protection criteria can be downloaded from the Internet at the push of a computer button? Indeed, how many of these regulators in NITEL, NCC and the Ministry of Communication have unhindered access to the Internet today? It is my belief that a Marshal Plan on Training should be implemented by all those saddled with the responsibility for regulating the telecommunications industry to train their staff on the advances in the telecommunications world and the imperatives of dynamic and forward-looking regulatory policies. You cannot regulate what you do not know. Therefore, training should be an on-going exercise. A cynical, but relevant, question easily comes to mind. Do the regulatory agencies, as presently staffed, have trainable personnel?. In the telecommunications industry, Nigeria has produced nationally and internationally acclaimed professionals in areas of operations, research and production, systems management, design and analysis. Indeed, the ITU itself independently invites Nigerians regularly to assist her with the development and analysis of policies and policy frameworks. It is on record that NITEL, the octopus of telecommunications operations in Nigeria today, has in the past 15 years laid off highly trained and experienced Nigerians whose collective experience could have been used to fashion out more coherent regulations for the telecommunications industry. Can the regulatory agencies seek out these Nigerians and, with little financial outlay, use them to develop workable and forward looking regulatory frameworks instead of proffering meaningless excuses for their failure to regulate the industry sufficiently or professionally. Technologically developed countries in the world today are primarily those who were able to harness the knowledge of their citizens locally available and those in the Diaspora in the search for solutions to their technological problems. It is my belief that the pre-work meeting organized by the new management of NCC these past two days and the workshop we are attending today under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications are progressive steps that should lead to a better regulatory environment for all forms of telecommunications

6 services - if the will exists to implement the recommendations. Thank you for your time.