Nigeria and the Republic of Niger have signed a bilateral agreement in Abuja for coordination of frequency utilisation along their borders to ensure seamless deployment of services around the two countries.
Director of public affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Reuben Muoka, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
The statement said the agreement’s signing ceremony was one of the highlights of the two-day Digital Economy Regional Conference, hosted by Nigeria and facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
ATTENTION: Click “HERE” to join our WhatsApp group and receive News updates directly on your WhatsApp!
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, signed on behalf of Nigeria, while the Minister of Post and New Information Technologies, Moussa Baraze, signed on behalf of the Niger Republic.
The NCC executive vice-chairman, Umar Danbatta, and the Niger Republic’s chair of the National Council for Regulation of Electronic Communications and Post, Aichatou Oumani, witnessed the ceremony.
The agreement applied to the coordination of frequencies existing in the Nigeria-Niger transboundary areas between 87.5 megahertz (MHz) to 30 gigahertz (GHz).
It read:
“The agreement will help in the effective coordination and sharing of frequencies and channels in the ‘buffer zone or area’ on borderlines between the two countries.
“It will also help to address one of the major issues of signal interference regulation that may arise in telecoms signal transmissions by terrestrial telecoms service providers, as it spells out the procedures for regulating such cases.
“It will provide, in part, that in case of harmful interference affecting one of the parties, the affected party shall inform the other party in writing for necessary action to be carried out.”
Mouka again said:
“Also, the party from whence the interference is originating shall ensure that all necessary means are used to resolve the harmful interference within 30 days of receipt of the notice.“
