Samson Akintaro 
Cost based on global best practices, says NCC
As Nigeria moves towards the deployment of 5G technology, telecommunications operators in the country have expressed worry over the N75 billion ($175 million) cost of the spectrum licence. According to them, the cost of acquiring the licence, which is to be issued by the NigerianCommunicationsCommission (NCC), is too high. The NCC has scheduled December 10 for the mock auction, while the actual auction is fixed for December 13, 2021. According to the Information Memorandum (IM) on the auction, “a reserve price of approximately N75 billion, equivalent to $197.400 million is to be used.”
NCC in the IM for the spectrum auction revealed that it would be offering two Lots of 100 MHz each in the 3.5 GHz band ranging from 3500 – 3600 MHz and 3700 to 3800 MHz for auction. The bidding operators are expected to pay an Initial Bid Deposit (IBD) equal to 10 per cent of the reserved. “To qualify to bid in the auction, the applicants will not have to be licenced network operators in Nigeria. However, any successful bidder, who does not have a Unified Access Service Licence (UASL), will be granted one upon payment of the specified fee. The tenure for the UASL will be 10 years, subject to renewal.
“Where a winner does not hold a Unified Access Service Licence (UASL), which is the operational licence for the frequency spectrum slated for auction, it will be issued at an additional fee of N374.600 million or at the subsisting licence fee at the time of the auction,” NCC stated.