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NCC to license another frequency spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band

By BusinessNews Staff on April 11, 2014

Following the successful auction of the remaining 30MHz spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band in February this year, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has concluded fresh arrangement to license another available frequency slot in the 3.5 GHz band.

Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah who announced the new plan, said it would be as transparent and successful as the 2.3 GHz spectrum auction that saw the emergence of Bitflux as winner.

According to Juwah, “NCC, in exercise of its functions enshrined in the NCC Act 2003, is pleased to announce to interested public, the availability of 3.5 GHz band in some states and the federal capital territory, which the commission is willing to sell to the public.”
The spectrum is available in 27 states and Abuja, the capital territory, with all the states having 25 MHz bandwidth available, except for Abuja that has only 20 MHz bandwidth available.

The spectrum is expected to be licensed on a state by state basis in the states where it is available, which means that winners of the spectrum licence will operate within the the state or states where the licence is situated.
NCC has asked interested candidates to submit application of interest, to enable it come up with a timetable for the auction.

Commending the efforts of NCC’s management team for its openness and transparency exhibited so far in the previous auctions of spectrums, President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi said NCC was not only leading by example, but was also proving to the entire world that Nigeria still have credible people in government that are building the image of the country in a positive manner.

“With the level of transparency exhibited by NCC in the past spectrum auctions, Nigerians and in deed foreign investors, will have confidence to invest in the country’s broadband, which government is currently campaigning for,” Ajayi said.
Giving details of the 3.5GHz spectrum, Director, Spectrum Administration at NCC, Austin Nwaulune said although the 3.5 GHz spectrum was not new, NCC decided to license it because some were still left in different states, after they were re-planned in 2009, when the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) was lost in orbit. “It is the remaining spectrum in some states that the NCC wants to license,” Nwaulune said.

NCC had in 2002, licensed the 3.5GHz spectrum band as Frequency Division Duplex, and re-licensed it in 2009 as Time Division Duplex, but some of the frequencies were still left unlicensed in various states, which the NCC is about to license on a state by state basis.

[This Day]

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