NCC Projects $224m For New Broadband Licenses

The Nigerian Communications Commission is set to auction 14 slots of 2.6GHz spectrum band to telecommunication operating companies across the country.

The telecommunications regulatory agency is projecting $224 million from the auctioning with a reserve price of $16 million each for the 14 new broadband licenses, one slot of the frequency is made up of two portions of 5MHz.

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In a memorandum released on the company’s website, NCC indicated that the auction for the licensing process will commence from May 16, 2016 in Abuja. Applicants are also expected to submit all bidding documents by April 29.

The company also pointed out that the $16m reserve price may be increased depending on the number of interested applicants.

The memorandum reads: “Based on these and observations of developments in international licensing trends, the Commission has decided to license the available 2 X 70 MHz slot in slots of 5 MHz to be aggregated by applicants through the Spectrum auction process,” the commission said.

“The Spectrum and Reserve Price The Commission offers 14 Lots of 2 X 5 MHz FDD paired Spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band ranging from 2500 – 2570MHz and 2620 to 2690MHz (totaling 2 X 70 MHz) for auction.”

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“For roll-out of services, the Commission intends to follow the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendation setting aside Spectrum in the 2.6GHz band for the provision of advanced wireless broadband services,” the memorandum stated.

“The Generic Reserve Price (GR) is the minimum price at which a Lot shall be sold, which is the Reserve Price for one Lot of 2 X 5MHz and has a value of: Sixteen Million United States Dollars only (US$16,000,000.00) Each lot of 2 X 5 MHz represents 1 eligibility point.

“An applicant that pays the IBD for 6 lots will have a total of 6 Eligibility Points. The Reserve Price (R) for an applicant will be calculated as the GR multiplied by the number of lots (N) applied for by the applicant.

“For Example, Reserve Price for an Applicant that applied for 6 Lots i.e. 6 Eligibility Points is: US$16,000,000.00X 6 = US$96,000,000.00 The Spectrum lots won by each Bidder will be assigned on a nationwide basis covering all the States of the Federation and the FCT.”

Applicants are not expected to own a telecommunications operational license in Nigeria, however, winners who do not currently hold the Unified Access Service License – operational license, will be charged an additional N374.6m.

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