1.

0 APPLICATION OF SUBMARINE TELECOMMUNICATION IN NIGERIA

CABLES

FOR

A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean. The first submarine communications cables carried telegraphy traffic. Subsequent generations of cables carried telephony traffic, then data communications traffic. Modern cables use only optical fiber technology to carry digital payloads, which carry telephone, Internet and private data traffic. Below is a labeled cross section of a submarine cable

1 - Polyethylene 2 - Mylar tape 3 - Stranded steel wires 4 - Aluminum water barrier 5 - Polycarbonate 6 - Copper or aluminum tube 7 - Petroleum jelly 8 - Optical fibers Nigeria is one of the biggest and fastest growing telecom markets in Africa, attracting huge amounts of foreign investment, and is yet standing at relatively low levels of market penetration. Far reaching liberalisation has led to hundreds of companies providing virtually all kinds of telecom and value-added services in an independently regulated market. Hence, the application of submarine cables in telecommunication in Nigeria is widespread.

1.1

DECREASE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS COST

GLOBACOM NIGERIA is the first sole company to build a high-capacity fibre-optic cable known as Glo-1 in Nigeria. It has the first successful submarine cable from the United Kingdom to Nigeria; and it has the potential to decrease telecommunications cost. This is because the submarine cable can be made available to a lot of consumers without a necessary decrease in efficiency, hence giving way to more customers. An increase in demand will eventually lead to a decrease in cost of the service 1.2 PROVISION OF EXCESS BANDWIDTH

The reliability of submarine cables is high, especially when multiple paths are available in the event of a cable break. Also, the total carrying capacity of submarine cables is in the terabits per second. For this reason, excess bandwidths can be provided to a large number of consumers. 1.3 HIGH SPEED INTERNET SERVICES

Glo-1 has the potential to provide high speed internet services, faster, more reliable and cheaper telecom services for the public. The benefits of high speed internet include: Browsing With fast internet, your Web pages will load much quicker. You don't have to worry about your screen freezing as a result of number open windows and tabs. Downloading Quick and easy downloading of audio and visual files, programs, and software updates is essential to an internet user. Using dial-up for a combination of these actions could take hours. Uploading At some point, you're going to want to upload audio and visual files like photos and videos. As they say, time is money so you don't want to wait around and have to deal with resolution and compression issues. With high speed internet, you can upload your files in seconds, unlike a dial-up connection which can take minutes for just one picture. Streaming A fluent video and audio stream is also a benefit of high speed internet. You don't wait to wait around for your file to load and having it stop halfway through, sometimes at the best part, can be very frustrating. Telephone Access If you have a high speed service, you can join the rest of the 21st century that talks on the phone while using the Internet at the same time, without needing a second phone line. Glo-1 will also improve teleconferencing, distance learning, disaster recovery and telemedicine among several other benefits for Nigerians and the people of West Africa.

 Teleconferencing: A teleconference or teleseminar is the live exchange and mass articulation of information among several persons and machines remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system. Distance learning: Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom. This will help individuals with tight schedules who want to get a degree in a course of study. This will help individuals to get degrees from schools oversees without the need of extra cost of actually travelling. Telemedicine: Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. It is also used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations. The Internet Protocol (IP)-based next generation networks currently being rolled out are enabling converged voice, data/Internet and video services. VoIP is already carrying the bulk of Nigerias international voice traffic. Applications such as e-commerce, online banking and e-payments, ehealth, e-learning and e-government are rapidly evolving.
1.4 INDIRECT BENEFITS

Significant indirect social and economic benefits would be associated with the proposed development. These include:

improved educational opportunities through increase in access to information and education resources; development of a regional sense of community through greater equality of information sharing across geographical regions and across groups in society; economic benefits from the enhanced opportunities for new and small enterprises that may have previously been excluded from technologies by high costs; and Macroeconomic benefits of the potential expansion of technology-reliant industries in West Africa, such as information technology services and software development businesses.

2.0 NIGERIA

THE AVAILABLE BROADBAND TECHNOLOGIES IN USE IN

As a result of the requirements of broadband intensive applications such as the triple play services (voice, data and video), high efficiency broadband technologies are required for fast and proper transmission of such data. The term broadband includes a broad range of technologies, all of which provide higher data rate access to the Internet. The introduction of the Glo-1 by GLOBACOM and also the main-1 submarine cable has introduced several broadband technologies in Nigeria. In general, broadband solutions can be classified into two groups: fixed line technologies and wireless technologies.

2.1

DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER LINE (DSL, ADSL, SDSL, AND VDSL)

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service provides a connection to the Internet through the telephone network. Unlike dial-up, DSL can operate using a single phone line without preventing normal use of the telephone line for voice phone calls. DSL uses the high frequencies, while the low (audible) frequencies of the line are left free for regular telephone communication. These frequency bands are subsequently separated by filters installed at the customer's premises. The data throughput of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 256 kbit/s to 20 Mbit/s in the direction to the customer (downstream), depending on DSL technology, line conditions, and service-level implementation. In telecommunications marketing, the term digital subscriber line is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), the most commonly installed variety of DSL. In ADSL, the data throughput in the upstream direction, (i.e. in the direction to the service provider) is lower than that in the downstream direction (i.e. to the customer), hence the designation of asymmetric. With a symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL), the downstream and upstream data rates are equal. Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL or VHDSL, ITU G.993.1)[35] is a digital subscriber line (DSL) standard capable of supporting applications such as high-definition television, as well as telephone services (voice over IP) and general Internet access, over a single physical connection. It provides data rates up to 52 Mbit/s downstream and 16 Mbit/s upstream over copper wires and up to 85 Mbit/s down- and upstream on coaxial cable.

2.2

MULTILINK DIAL-UP

Multilink dial-up provides increased bandwidth by bonding two or more dial-up connections together and treating them as a single data channel.[25] It requires two or more modems, phone lines, and dial-up accounts, as well as an ISP that supports multilinking - and of course any line and data charges are also doubled. This inverse multiplexing option was briefly popular with some high-end users before ISDN, DSL and other technologies became available.

2.3

LEASED LINES

Leased lines are dedicated lines used primarily by ISPs, business, and other large enterprises to connect LANs and campus networks to the Internet using the existing infrastructure of the public telephone network or other providers. Delivered using wire, optical fiber, and radio, leased lines are used to provide Internet access directly as well as the building blocks from which several other forms of Internet access are created.

2.4

INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK (ISDN)

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), a switched telephone service capable of transporting voice and digital data, is one of the oldest Internet access methods. ISDN has been used for voice, video conferencing, and broadband data applications. ISDN was very popular in Europe, but less common in North America. Its use peaked in the late 1990s before the availability of DSL and cable modem technologies. Basic rate ISDN, known as ISDN-BRI, has two 64 kbit/s "bearer" or "B" channels. These channels can be used separately for voice or data calls or bonded together to provide a 128 kbit/s service. Multiple ISDN-BRI lines can be bonded together to provide data rates above 128 kbit/s. Primary rate ISDN, known as ISDN-PRI, has 23 bearer channels (64 kbit/s each) for a combined data rate of 1.5 Mbit/s. 2.5 WI-FI

Wi-Fi is the popular name for a "wireless local area network" that uses one of the IEEE 802.11 standards. It is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Individual homes and businesses often use WiFi to connect laptops and smart phones to the Internet. Wi-Fi Hotspots may be found in coffee shops and various other public establishments. Wi-Fi is used to create campus-wide and citywide wireless networks.

Wi-Fi networks are built using one or more wireless routers called Access Points. "Ad hoc" computer to computer Wi-Fi" networks are also possible. The Wi-Fi network is connected to the larger Internet using DSL, cable modem, and other Internet access technologies. Data rates range from 6 to 600 Mbit/s. Wi-Fi service range is fairly short, typically 20 to 250 meters or from 65 to 820 feet. Both data rate and range are quite variable depending on the Wi-Fi protocol, location, frequency, building construction, and interference from other devices.[54] Using directional antennas and with careful engineering W-Fi can be extended to operate over distances of up to several kilometers 2.6 MOBILE BROADBAND

Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access delivered through mobile phone towers to computers, mobile phones (called "cell phones" in North America and South Africa), and other digital devices using portable modems. Some mobile services allow more than one device to be connected to the Internet using a single cellular connection using a process called tethering. The modem may be built into laptop computers, tablets, mobile phones, and other devices, added to some devices using PC cards, USB modems, and USB sticks or dongles, or separate wireless modems can be used.[61] Roughly every ten years new mobile phone technology and infrastructure involving a change in the fundamental nature of the service, non-backwards-compatible transmission technology, higher peak data rates, new frequency bands, wider channel frequency bandwidth in Hertz becomes available 2.7 WIMAX

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a set of interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.16 family of wireless-network standards certified by the WiMAX Forum. WiMAX enables "the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".[57] The original IEEE 802.16 standard, now called "Fixed WiMAX", was published in 2001 and provided 30 to 40 megabit-per-second data rates.[58] Mobility support was added in 2005. A 2011 update provides data rates up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations. WiMax offers a metropolitan area network with a signal radius of about 50 km (30 miles), far surpassing the 30-metre (100-foot) wireless range of a conventional Wi-Fi local area network (LAN). WiMAX signals also penetrate building walls much more effectively than WiFi.

3.0

PROSPECTS AND IMPLEMENTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

CONSTRAINTS OF CASHLESS POLICY IN NIGERIA WITH RESPECT TO

The cashless policy is defined as a situation where there is little or very low cash flow in a given society, thus every other purchases and transactions will be made by electronic channels, examples of which are direct debit, electronic funds transfer, mobile payments, multi-functional ATMs, internet banking and a significant increase in point of sale (POS) penetration and usage. It other words, it simply refers to the widespread application of computer technology in the financial system of Nigeria given the rapid technological advancements and increasing consumer demand. The prospect of the cashless policy in terms of infrastructure is in the development of the internet services needed to make payments. An efficient and reliable broadband internet service is required to run the cashless service. The following are the prospects of the cashless policy with respect to internet service infrastructure:

3.1

ADVANCEMENT OF INTERNET SERVICE PROVISION

The running of an internet based service such as electronic funds transfer, mobile payments, multi-functional ATMs, internet banking requires efficient broadband internet technology. The implementation of a cashless economy in Nigeria will raise the need for a better internet infrastructure. Better broadband service will also be useful for other internet needs.

3.2

PROFIT MAKING FOR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

In the process of making internet service available for the efficient running of the cashless economy, various internet service providers who will render the internet service have the opportunity of making profit for themselves. 3.3 JOB OPPORTUNITY CREATION

In the event of launching the cashless economy, there will be the need for man power to man the internet base stations. This will create job opportunities for the information technology inclined populous.

However, there has to be some infrastructures in place before the implementation of the cashless policy. There are constraints which restrict the cashless economy policy in Nigeria. 3.4 ABSENCE OF PROPER INTERNET FACILITIES

The payment of money by electronic channels, examples of which are direct debit, electronic funds transfer, and mobile payments require a very good and efficient broadband internet facility. At the moment, broadband internet is not very efficient and this will slow down the process of sending money. 3.5 INADEQUACY OF SKILLED MAN POWER

The numbers of the skilled man power that can operate the internet facilities are few in number. This will be a hindrance in the implementation of the cashless economy.