Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has released the final Information Memorandum (IM) for the planned auction of the 5G spectrum licence auction scheduled for December 13, 2021.
The commission also disclosed in a statement that it tomorrow, Wednesday, November 24 will be deadline for the submission of application by interested telecom licencees and new entrants to submit bids for the auction.
NCC plans to auction two lots of 100 MHz TDD slots available in the 3.5 GHz band to support the delivery of ubiquitous broadband services. The two lots are in the 3500-3600 and 3700-3800 MHz frequency and will be offered on a technology neutral basis for provision of communications service.
Prof. Umaru Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, has urged stakeholders to pay attention particularly to Sections 1 (e), VII {(i) (ii), (v) (3) (c)} and XI (e) of the IM. The NCC has already pegged the Generic Reserve Price (GRP) for each lot of the spectrum at N75 billion ($197,400,000.00) or its equivalent in naira at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rates at the time of the auction.
The spectrum lot won by each bidder will be assigned on a nationwide basis covering all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on a subsisting policy on “use-it or lose-it” with respect to the use of assigned Spectrum.
According to the final IM document, “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, 600,000.00 only or at the subsisting licence fee at the time of the auction.”
The NCC says the proposed licensing of 3.5 GHz Spectrum has been influenced by the need to open up the space for the delivery of present and future generations of broadband services to subscribers in line with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025.
Professor Danbatta said through the collaborative efforts of the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) and Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NigComSat), the NCC secured the necessary 3.4-3.9GHz C-band for deployment of 5G services in Nigeria.
“The C-band is globally accepted as the candidate of choice for 5G deployment due to its excellent propagation characteristics,” he said, adding that it has become imperative to immediately license the 3.5GHz band in Nigeria for the deployment of 5G services.
According to the prequalification criteria, an applicant must be a company incorporated in Nigeria; must be independent (10% ownership interest test as defined in Section 7.6.2 of this IM) from all other applicants under this auction process and must transfer an Intention-to-Bid Deposit (IBD) for the amount described in Table 2 into the designated account in cleared funds.
“This deposit will bind the applicant to take up a Licence, should it be a successful bidder, at the reserve price or any higher bid value submitted during the process. Licenced Operators participating in the process must be in good regulatory standing with the commission.”
According to Engr. Olutoyin Asaju, director, spectrum administration, NCC, new entrants are allowed to participate in the auction in addition to existing licencees.
NCC plans to use the Ascending Clock Auction which is software based. It said provisions have been made for manual auction should the auction software fail during the auction process. It plans to have a mock auction on December 6, 2021 which shall precede the main auction starting December 13, 2021.
NCC sought the active participation of stakeholders in the deliberations that would follow towards the licensing of the 3.5GHz mid band for the deployment of 5G services amongst others in Nigeria.
