The Lagos State government has begun its smart city initiative with the unified fibre duct infrastructure and connectivity project across all the Local Government Areas and local community development Areas in the state.
A statement from Western Telecoms and Engineering (the Special Purpose Vehicle in charge of the project), the project will enable planning of fibre routes in accordance to developmental and social need of the state with demography and geographical considerations.
The fibre duct connectivity will afford broadband service providers to lease infrastructure from duct infrastructure owner under a state government open access driven plan in order to control the design of the fibre duct and other fibre routes with input from telcos, infracos and towercos for commercial viability, according to the company.
It said the fibre duct connectivity allows the neutrality of players and avoids conflict of interest.
The company said the project is also been supported by key telecommunications industry players both locally and internationally and outsourced to an independent civil engineering asset management company.
It said: “Lagos fibre duct infrastructure project is bedrock of Lagos Smart City initiatives in driving E-traffic, E-transport, E-health, E-education and E-governance which is linked to the six pillars of development (THEMES) of governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu Administration.
“It also allows the MNO’s (Mobile Network Operators) with fibre coverage in Lagos State to have multiple fibre duct on the same routes.”
“The current system of multiple RoW approvals along the same routes is inefficient and does not conform to global best practices.”
The company noted that Nigeria Communications Commission has maintained that RoW approvals is beyond its power and has mandated all licenses to seek such approvals from the State or Federal Government agencies.
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