The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) at the weekend insisted that it would auction the 5G Spectrum in December at the reserved price of $197.4million (N75billion).
It added that interested telecoms licensees who made a down payment of 10percent of the reserved bid price and the 100percent regulatory compliance would be allowed to participate in the auction.
In a statement by the Director of Public Affairs of the NCC, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, yesterday, the regulatory body also said a mock auction holds by December 10 while December 13 was slated for the actual auction.
Telecoms companies last week rejected the $197.4million fixed by the commission for each slot of the spectrum put on offer.
The NCC officially declared in Lagos during a stakeholders meeting that the auction of the 3.5Gigahertz (3.5GHz) spectrum for the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology would be at $197.4million.
The commission also unveiled the Information Memorandum (IM) and adopted the Ascending Clock Auction format, which is software-based.
The NCC further explained that IM “provides information, conditions, obligations, financial implication, timelines and other necessary details on the planned 3.5Ghz spectrum auction.”
The IM also explained the rollout obligations of the would-be eventual winners of the spectrum licence auction, whose reserved price has been pegged at $197.4million (N75billion), the NCC asserted in the statement.
Adinde further explained that “only licensees, who make down payment of 10per cent of the reserved bid price and with 100per cent regulatory compliance would be allowed to participate in the auction while licensees with outstanding debts that have secured NCC’s approval for a payment plan will be allowed to participate in the auction.”
He said: “According to the IM, the auction comes with a 10-year spectrum licence and a minimum requirement of an operational Universal Access Service Licence (UASL). However, new entrants or licensees without a UASL will be required to obtain a UASL operational license to be qualified for the 5G licence.
“The eventual licensees will have a rollout obligation plan spanning a period of 10 years, beginning from the date of award of the licence. Between the first and second year of the licence, the operators are expected to rollout service in, at least, one State in each geo-political zone.
“From the third to fifth year, they are obligated to cover all the zones. Between six to 10 years, they should cover all the states in the country, according to guidelines set out in the IM.”
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, listed the various steps diligently taken by the commission that culminated in present status of the 5G deployment plan.
Danbatta at the meeting also reeled out data to justify how profitable investment in 5G deployment would be for potential operators and investors in the country.
“Nigeria has an estimated population of 214million, with an average growth rate of 2.6per cent annually.
“Approximately 76.46per cent of the population is under the age of 35. In line with these demographic changes, internet penetration grew from three per cent in 2004 to 73.82per cent as of September, 2021, and broadband penetration increased from less than 10per cent in 2015 to 40.01per cent in September, 2021,” he said.