As part of the Federal Government's fresh intervention in the area of affordable Information Communication Technology (ICT) to Nigerian communities, NIGCOMSAT Limited, the company incharge of Nigeria's communication satellite, yesterday said it has embarked on a pilot programme to provide over 400 Community Tele-Centres (CTC) nationwide.

The project is meant to provide Nigerians in remote and un-served urban areas with affordable access to internet, multimedia and voice over internet protocol.

Speaking to newsmen at the company's headquarters in Abuja, on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the launching of the country's first communication satellite into orbit, the Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT Limited, Engr. T Ahmed Rufai, said the building of the centres would be completed by month end, adding that the company has already completed and deployed facilities in 79 benefiting communities across the country.

"In pursuit of government's intervention in the area of affordable ICT to Nigerians, NigComSat-1 is presently being utilized to provide over 400 community Tele-Centres (CTC) nationwide with 79 currently being deployed", he said.

Apart from being designed to provide value added service such as e-learning centres for distant learning students, e-health care delivery, wireless access to homes, repair centre and space education, Rufai said the centres will also act as distribution points for NIGCOMSAT's e-learning certification programme.

The MD whose company was recently embroiled in a clash of interest of with the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) over the issuance of telecoms license, said NIGCOMSAT is trying to forge strategic partnerships with pioneering organizations in the downstream sector such as Linkserve Limited and Sub-Urban Telecoms to ensure cost-effective and high quality service delivery in the industry.

He said the satellite is currently providing services to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), CIT, Emperion, Galaxy Blackbone Plc and Cyberspace with sales commitment to Defense Headquarters, Immigration, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Craft Technologies, Digitech Broadcasting International as well as other operators in telecommunications industry.

According to Rufai, the satellite company is "planning to expand its business reach to cover other parts the ECOWAS sub-region, including the completion of 300 CTC's, deployment of NIGCOMSAT services into West Africa along and the proposed launch of NigComSat 2 and 3."

The MD who listed the conflict with NCC among the firm's key challenges in its progress march, said a utilization analysis conducted by the company's engineers show that demand for its transpondent access will soon exceed the available capacity on NigComSat-1.