From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has officially declared that the auction of the 3.5 Gigahertz (3.5 GHz) spectrum for the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology in Nigeria, would take place on December 13.
The commission disclosed this in an Information Memorandum (IM) presented at a stakeholder engagement forum organised on 5G spectrum recently in Lagos.
NCC also said that it is adopting Ascending Clock Auction format, which is software-based while a mock auction has been slated for December 10, as a precursor to the actual auction on December 13.
NCC spokesperson, Ikechukwu Adinde, in a statement at the weekend, said that the IM provides information, conditions, obligations, financial implication, timelines and other necessary details on the planned 3.5Ghz spectrum auction.
He said that the IM also explains the rollout obligations of the would-be eventual winners of the spectrum licence auction, whose reserved price has been pegged at $197.4 million (N75 billion).
As regards to conditions for prospective bidders, Adinde said: “The IM states that only licensees, who make down payment of 10 per cent of the reserved bid price and with 100 per 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.
“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 roll out 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,” he said.
Speaking at the forum, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said that the ministry has been working closely with the commission to ensure that necessary spectrum resources needed for the deployment of 5G network in Nigeria to accelerate the nation’s digital economy space is made available.