The Nigerian Communications Commission has given the federal government’s approval to MTN Nigeria and MAFAB Communications to commence the rollout of 5G services in the country.
NCC confirmed this in a statement on Wednesday, by the Director Public Affairs of the Commission, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde. It said, “with the issuance of the final letters of awards of 5G spectrum and in line with the 5G auction’s Information Memorandum (IM), the two licensees are now expected to accelerate deployment of 5G network that will usher Nigeria into a more robust Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and a more digitised Nigerian economy among the comity of nations.”
The approval given to the two operators certifies that the two, who won the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction in December 2021, have met all the necessary requirements to roll out the innovative service in the country.
The approval also gives them time to meet up the August 24, 2022 deadline to roll out services as the Information Memorandum of the auction stipulated.
NCC on February 24, confirmed the full payment of $273.6 million each by the two spectrum winners, in addition to spectrum assignment fee paid by MTN, for the 5G spectrum licence.
Terms and conditions of the 5G licence mandate the licensees to commence the rollout of 5G services, effective from August 24.
The Commission said it is optimistic that effective implementation of the National Policy on 5G will accelerate the actualisation of the national targets in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025, the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030, as well as other sectoral policies designed to enhance Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Although the license winners are expected to meet the timetable regarding their 5G network rollout obligations, NCC explained that it required collective efforts and support of the private sector towards transforming every aspect of the nation’s economy through 5G, which will herald greater transformation than what the nation witnessed with the 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G.
 |
|
