MTN Nigeria Communications, Airtel Africa Plc and other operators appear all geared up for the second auction for the deployment of fifth generation (5G) technology in the country.
Less than one year after it secured one of the two 5G licences, MTN Nigeria is eyeing a second one, according to the comments the telecommunications company made on the Draft Information Memorandum on Tuesday.
The MTN disclosure caused disquiet among telecom operators who were at the Stakeholders’ Engagement on the Draft Information Memorandum (IM) on 3.5GHz Spectrum Auction, organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
A spokesperson for MTN Nigeria raised concerns about the clause on the IM that suggested that operators with existing 5G licence may not participate in the upcoming licence auction in December 2022. According to the provision, any licensee of the commission or any entity that has up to 100MHz in the 3.5GHz band in Nigeria will not be eligible to participate in the auction.
He said the company entered the last auction in 2021 with the expectation that it is an open market and it would be allowed to participate in other auctions should the need arise.
MTN won Lot B in 2021, and what the NCC is currently auctioning is Lot A and C. The position of the telco is that original equipment manufacturers that manufacture the 5G equipment often produce for two lots, either A and B or B a C. The telco says having licence for two lots provides it easy access to the necessary equipment it requires for effective deployment and it makes the cost of the service cheaper for consumers.
Nigeria has four 5G licences. So far two of these licences have been auctioned, although only one licensee has launched the service commercially. The telcos are concerned that allowing MTN access to two out of the four licences confers an undue advantage to the largest telecommunications network in Africa and leaves others playing catch-up in the emerging 5G market.
The representatives of telcos like Airtel and others said it goes against the spirit of competition in the market for one telco to hold more than one licence when other players are yet to get any of the licences.
Ubale Maska, executive commissioner, technical services at NCC, said MTN’s request isn’t a first in the telco industry as there are precedents and Nigeria is an open market.
BusinessDay gathered that Orange Telecom has more than one 5G licence in Spain.
Read also:NCC to surpass 5G revenue target, sets remaining licences at N119.4bn
Airtel Africa had also asked the NCC to set aside a slot of the 3.5GHz Spectrum for it at $273.6 million, which was the price the commission sold the last two slots in November 2021. The offer was declined.
“Our reserve price was set after necessary benchmarking. We arrived at some idea of what the price should be. The auction determined what the actual price should be. If we have only one party interested that will determine the price. If the reserve price throws up a higher price, that new price becomes the new price,” said Maska.
Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman of NCC, said all requests will be given due consideration and final feedback made before the auction.
“The motive is not to generate money for the federal government. It has nothing to do with the revenue we are going to generate. The price was determined by the last auction. We will always make reference to the reserve price no matter when the auction was held,” Danbatta said.
He said more comments are invited and the auction process is not to generate revenue for the government.
