IT News Nigeria:
The Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof.Umar Garba Danbatta, announced today that the 60 GHZ global Unlicensed band which exists on 57-64 GHz, a wide Spectrum of up to 7 GHz is now officially open to Nigerians
Danbatta said this at the Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Regulation of Drones: The Spectrum Perspective, and Presentation of the reviewed guidelines on 2.4 and 5.8 GHz Spectrum bands organized by the Commission in Lagos.
“ I am happy to report to you today that the 60 GHZ global Unlicensed band which exists on 57-64 GHz, a wide Spectrum of up to 7 GHz is now officially open to Nigerians and will in due course be available for Use after necessary work is completed on the guidelines”, he said.
Danbatta, who was ably represented by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at NCC, Mr. Adeleke Adewolu, said this initiative will complement the Spectrum in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHZ unlicensed bands currently being utilized in the country.
“At this Juncture, let me emphasize that all the aforementioned Spectrums are Iicense-free but regulated. Also, all equipment to be used must be dully type approved in accordance with the commission’s Type Approval Regulation and we therefore call on stakeholders to leverage on this wonderful opportunity provided by the 60 GHZ frequency band.”
According to Danbatta, last year on the 27th February, 2018, NCC discuss the opening of the 60 GHz Spectrum band in our bid to boost the imminent advantages that are coming with 5G technology and also to support indoor short range machine to machine communication.
IT News Nigeria gathered that the objective of this forum is to bring to your attention, the effort of the Commission at providing requisite Spectrum for the deployment of drones technology and for listen to your views on the subject matter. There will also be a presentation of the reviewed guidelines on the use of 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands respectively to accommodate the emerging technology.
The EVC said the country is faced with myriad of challenges such as vandalism of critical national infrastructure, kidnapping, insurgencies, terrorism amongst others.
He however noted that “the guidelines for the use of 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz Spectrum bands is presently limited in its condition of use and therefore requires amendments. Toward this end, the new draft guidelines have incorporated some changes which include but not limited to Duty cycle, Transmission, Reception Frequencies, Power Distance, Speed and Weight. We believe these changes will give an added opportunity to the Use of drones in the bands without causing interference to the adjacent and incumbent services.”
These frequencies are currently unlicensed and are not allocated strictly for the utilization of drones in Nigeria. The Commission has temporarily identified and modified some conditions in the guidelines and authorized the operators, cleared by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), to use them in response to the request from the ONSA to temporarily use the frequencies pending the revision of the guidelines, Danbatta added.
The Forum was attended by agencies of government, Army, Customs among others.
