By The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), sais it has been putting in place deliberate policies towards facilitating provisioning of Space based communications services.
According a document from the sighted by TechnologyMirror, the NCC has also developed Licensing Framework to facilitate investments and entry into the Nigerian market for provision of communications services.
The Commission had in 2018 released the Commercial Satellite Communications Guidelines for the telecommunications sector in Nigeria.
The Guidelines which came into effect in November 2018 regulates all Satellite Communications Services in all Orbits in Nigeria.
The NCC in the Licensing Framework documents unveiled the official LIST of Space Stations authorized by the NCÇ.
The LIST provides the information for each Space Station LANDING PERMIT holder such as Space Station’s home administration, orbital location; name of Space Station/Operator; Frequency bands, Frequency range and Service type (either Fixed or Mobile satellite service). It also includes Bandwidth and Landing Permit duration.
The document further showed the LANDING PERMIT does not authorize Space segment operators to provide Satellite based communications services directly to last mile users, but can provide services to local telecom operators licensed by the Commission to provide services to last mile users.
Also, the NCC said the local telecom operators shall have an Operational Licence and one OR more of the following Network Frequency licenses to enable them deploy their network:
VSAT Earth Station Frequency licence
Earth Station-in-Motion (ESIM) Network Frequency licence
Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) Network Frequency licence
High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) Network Frequency licence
UAV/Drone Network Frequency licence
Gateway Earth Station (GES) Frequency licence
The disclosed that the LIST will be updated biannually to reflect the status of market access and all the Landing permits issued or modified (depending on whether the Commission has been notified with a request for a Landing Permit or a request to remove a Space Station from service or the Landing Permit of a Space Station has lapsed
