NOTICE OF INTENTION TO ISSUE GUIDELINES ON VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL AND INTERNATIONAL ACCESS/GATEWAY

The Nigerian Communications Commission in accordance with the provisions of Section 70(2) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, proposes to make and publish the following Guidelines.

This publication serves as Notice to all affected Licensees.

Interested stakeholders are invited to submit comments on the proposed guidelines to the Commission within 21 days from the date of this Notice. All comments submitted will be duly considered in making the Final guidelines. All comments should be forwarded to the following address:

The Office of:
The Executive Vice Chairman
Nigerian Communications Commission
Plot 72 Ahmadu Bello Way
Central Business District
Abuja .

Comments may also be submitted by email to

PROPOSED REGULATORY GUIDELINES FOR VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL AND INTERNATIONAL ACCESS/GATEWAY

The Nigerian Communications Commission conducted an industry consultative workshop on VoIP technology and its impact on international access and international gateways. Thereafter the Commission also constituted an industry study group drawn from all areas of telecommunications and anchored by a consultant to come up with a report.

The Commission has reviewed all the reports and hereby proposes the following guidelines:

PREAMBLE

	VoIP is a technology that enables the provision of voice telephony services, and is not in itself a distinct service;
	The Commission is empowered to and should continue to regulate services rather than technology, thus allowing industry practitioners to decide whatever technology to employ to provide the services for which they are duly authorized.
	In line with above, the deployment of VoIP in Nigeria shall not be restricted. However, the applicable equipment shall be subjected to the necessary type-approval by the Commission

DECLARATIONS

Consistent with this position, the Commission proposes as follows:

	International access is hereby liberalised subject to obtaining the relevant authorisation.
	There will henceforth be two categories of authorisations for International Access which are
		Full gateway authorisation which will be valid for international signalling point code assignments and;
		International Data Access. (IDA).
	The scope of IDA licence shall include the right to provide voice and data services and full interconnection to Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN).
	There may be a need to enter into separate interconnect agreement for the transmission (transit and termination) of international traffic with other operators, which shall include provisions for full disclosure of the volume of such international traffic. Such interconnection and transit regimes maybe subject to different rates from existing rates for domestic traffic as approved by the Commission.
	Operators shall not discriminate and/or reject requests for interconnection or transit by other entities that are duly authorized to provide international services;
	Henceforth, there shall be no distinction between domestic and international V-SAT licences. Authorizations for deployment of VSATs do not automatically connote international access. However, if any VSAT Licensee requires links outside Nigeria , it must obtain an IDA licence.
	In consonance with the above, the operators with partial Gateway rights, i.e. the Digital Mobile Licensees, shall be granted full Gateway rights, thus allowing them to carry third-party traffic, in addition to their own traffic.

SIGNED
ENGR ERNEST C. A. NDUKWE
EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRMAN