Tech
By Benprince Ezeh
THE Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, says it is committed to optimizing the full benefits of spectrum to ensure regulatory excellence and operational efficiency. Austine Nwaulune, Director Spectrum Administration, NCC, said that drones have gone through massive development in recent years, and that the market for drones showed exponential growth, similar to all other significant new technologies.
In his welcome address at the Stakeholder Consultative Forum on Regulation of Drones in Lagos on Wednesday, December 18, Nwaulune noted that Drones have found application in several areas that are contributing to the development of nations.
He said these includes security surveillance, shipping and delivery, disaster management, rescue operations, healthcare, archaeological surveys, geographic mapping, law enforcement, safety inspection, agriculture and wildlife monitoring.
According to him, the security of any nation typically involves conducting consistent surveys of potential flashpoints in order to ensure the protection of the populace and the entire environment.
“Using drones, in this case, could be an interesting idea. This reduces manual labour and affords a wider field of view.
“This also does not hamper the normal lives of the people, as they do not have to enter these dangerous areas themselves. Drones have a lot of potential in terms of law enforcement – these devices have the innate ability to hover around locations without drawing much attention from the people. Thus, this can be used for surveillance or for public safety.
“One of the most important applications for these drones lies in disaster management. It is often seen that there is utter chaos and mismanagement of resources soon after a disaster, be it man-made or natural calamity.
Drones could help significantly by coordinating valuable resources and eliminating the need for a vast amount of manpower, these drones could be of great help immediately following a disaster to save lives.
“Today, the world of commerce has really conquered the idea of using drones to its fullest extent. The shipping and delivery of applications of drones have revolutionized the world of shipping delivery, significantly improving delivery times and reducing human intervention. Be it delivering pizzas, letters, or even small parcels, these programmed drones could do the work excellently and efficiently,” he said.
Nwaulune said drones can easily reach places that many humans cannot, and this can be invaluable when timely rescues are critical. According to him, a rescue operation is a fight against time.
“There is usually a need to get the drones to work fast and smoothly. This is where drones come in handy. With the help of thermal sensors, drones can locate lost persons. They are also especially useful at night or even in challenging terrains.
“The drone market is scaling rapidly and delivering enriched services in the process. The wealth of new applications of this new technology and the role that stakeholders can play is very critical. This forum has been organized to bring together all stakeholders featuring drone experts, operators, law enforcement agencies and business representatives to discuss and share their views on development trends and innovative applications of drone industry as well as the technicalities associated with deployments of drones relate to spectrum from the standpoint of Spectrum use,” he said.
– Dec. 19, 2019 @ 16:05 GMT
Tags: NCC ready to take full benefits of Drones – Official
