IMPLEMENTING BROADBAND OVER POWER LINE AS A LAST MILE SOLUTION IN NIGERIA

Implementing Broadband over Power line as a Last mile solution in Nigeria

Dedication

This Thesis is dedicated to the love of my life Lola Kunuyi as well as my 3 precious girls Christabel, Moriayo and Kashope Kunuyi for their continued support, love perseverance and steadfast prayers. I could not have done it without them all. To my best friend, teacher, comforter, helper, unseen Mentor and the one who brings into remembrance all that I have learnt, the Holy Spirit I say thank you!



Acknowledgements

May I say a big thank you to my supervisor Nick Barnett for tutoring me on this dissertation. His knowledge and exposure to modern IT technologies is without equal. I want to express my gratitude to the entire academic staff and Management of University of Plymouth for giving me a dazzling platform to fulfil a lifetime ambition. My sincere appreciation also goes to Bola Taylor, Anthony Oyebode, Segun Bawala, Yinka Makinde, Sherene and Ian for their continuous encouragement and challenge during the course of this MBA, working tirelessly during exam periods and throughout the life span of this project. My appreciation would not be complete without acknowledging Pastor Olurotimi, Sam Opeche, Luke Kaffo and all my siblings Sister Yetunde Agbesanwa, Dotun kunuyi, Yemi Okoruwa, Bunmi Oyewunmi and Kemi Olagoke for believing in me, insisting and encouraging me to embark on an MBA, May the Lord bless you all, Amen …!

Executive Summary

“Necessity is the mother of all invention”- Plato

A socio-economic inclusive Information Society is defined as a social order whereby everybody has the ability to produce, gain access, share and make good use of information. Up until now, quite a lot of under developed nations were secluded from Information society globally and as a result reflects in their current socioeconomic and political realities. Communities that lack good Information Technology recurrently fall short of crucial necessities of life (WSIS, 2005).

Broadband over Powerline otherwise known as BPL is no longer a mere question of “If” and “How it Works?”, but rather when it can be implemented, how it would be deployed and what the benefits are to stakeholders. Following quite a string of challenges with Armature radio and unsuccessful deployments, BPL is now becoming a feasible substitute for Internet provisioning. A lot of efforts have recently been put into developing this technology due to the huge demand in finding a cost effective and a seamlessly deployable last mile solution.

This document describes BPL in detail, where it should be implemented, how and what it cost to implement the technology. It further aims to corroborate what financial outlay would be needed to actualise a successful deployment of this technology. This includes a return on capital employed and other relevant facts linked together into a cohesive anecdote. Making use of a converged network infrastructure can help to catalyse a socioeconomic inclusion within the Information Society (Southwood, 2007a; Stern et al, 2006). Other than the basic developmental yields, Power and Telecommunication organisations ...