Thursday May 02, 2024

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The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has affirmed that access to robust broadband infrastructure by any country is central to that country's ability to effectively harness the full potential and reap the benefits of the current Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Danbatta stated this in a goodwill message deliverered on his behalf by Ismail Adedigba, Head, Information and Reference, NCC, during the three-day 2019 edition of the Information Communication Technology and Telecommunication (ICTEL) Expo, which kicked off at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Tuesday.

According to Danbatta, the 4IR characterised by increased use of the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-to-Man (M2H), Human-to-Machine (H2M), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, Artificial Intelligence, augmented reality, robotics, Cloud computing, Big data, Over-the-Top (OTT) applications, Block-chain technology, advanced security systems and many other possibilities of the emergent digital culture, will need to ride on broadband networks that can carry the huge data that will be required for proper functioning of these emerging technologies.

He said this realisation informed the ongoing drive by the NCC towards creating an enabling environment for investment in pervasive broadband networks deployment and taking concrete regulatory measures in addressing key challenges such as the issue of high cost or denial of Right of Way (RoW), multiple taxation and regulations, vandalism, among others, which he said constitute a disincentive to investment drive in the nation's telecommunications industry.