Page 67 - Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016

Demand and rights of way
All efforts should be made not only to aggregate demand from government, but also to enforce rights Annex 1
of way. Demand aggregation can encourage operators to make broadband infrastructure investments
in regions that they may otherwise consider commercially unviable. By demonstrating the demand for
broadband services, operators may be convinced that there is a commercial case for investment.

Governments and regulators can also take steps to ensure that operators are not dissuaded from investing
in broadband networks because of high costs or lengthy delays for acquiring fibre rights-of-way. For
example, the Nigerian Ministry of Communications and Technology announced in June 2013 that, in order
to help implement its national broadband plan, it had reduced the time for a rights-of-way application to be
processed and reduced the cost per kilometre .
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