NCC to use Drones to fight Insecurity in Nigeria
Security
By Benprince Ezeh
THE Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, says it is ready to launch drones spectrum to assist security agencies in the country. Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, said the spectrum would assist in tackling the myriad of challenges such as vandalism of critical national infrastructure, kidnapping, insurgencies and terrorism amongst others.
Speaking at the stakeholders’ consultative forum on regulation of drones in Lagos, Danbatta informed the stakeholders of the appropriate Spectrum for drones and its conditions of use in order to help in realizing the set objectives of deploying them to tackle the security challenges and for commercial services too.
Danbatta, who was represented by Adeleke Adewolu, executive commissioner, stakeholder management, NCC, said the guidelines for the use of 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz Spectrum bands was presently limited in its condition of use and therefore required amendments.
According to him, the new draft guidelines have incorporated some changes, which include but not limited to Duty cycle, Transmission, Reception Frequencies, Power, Distance, Speed and Weight.
“We believe these changes will give an added opportunity to the use of drones in the bands without causing interference to the adjacent and incumbent services. These Frequencies are currently unlicensed and are not allocated strictly for the utilization of drones in Nigeria. The Commission has temporarily identified and modified some conditions in the guidelines and authorized the operators, cleared by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), to use them in response to the request from the ONSA to temporarily use the Frequencies pending the revision of the guidelines.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you will recall that last year on the 27th February, 2018, we all gathered in this hall to discuss the opening of the 60 GHz Spectrum band in our bid to boost the imminent advantages that are coming with 5G technology and also to support indoor short range machine to machine communication. I am happy to report to you today that the 60 GHz global unlicensed band which exists on 57–64 GHz, a wide Spectrum of up to 7 GHz is now officially open to Nigerians and will in due course be available for use after necessary work is completed on the guidelines.
“This initiative will complement the Spectrum in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed bands currently being utilized in the country. At this juncture, let me emphasize that all the aforementioned Spectrums are license-free but regulated. Also, all equipment to be used must be dully type approved in accordance with the Commission’s Type Approval Regulation and we therefore call on stakeholders to leverage on this wonderful opportunity provided by the 60 GHz frequency band,” he said.
– Dec. 19, 2019 @ 16:09 GMT
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