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Business Analysis
PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014
NCC: Unravelling the Last Mile By Justin Eradiri
W
hen the broadband masterplan was launched in 2012, the Nigerian Communications Commission declared its preparedness to propel the country to the next level of digital communications in pursuit of robust economic and technological advancement. The masterplan is a detailed road map for achieving the broadband revolution. The last mile to that destination was boldly taken on February the 19th, 2014, when the license for the remaining 30 MGh frequency slot on the 2.3GHz spectrum band was given out to new entrants and winners of the bid, Bitflux Communications Limited in an auction. Initially planned for two days, the exercise which held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, ended within hours. It was attended by the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah, Chairman of the NCC, Mr. Peter Igho, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Chief Okechukwu Itanyi, representatives from the Ministry of Communications Technology and other stakeholders. By virtue of this license, Bitflux Communications Limited has been empowered to provide wholesale wireless access services. The company has 14 business days from the date of the provisional award (February 19, 2014) to pay the bid amount less the Initial Bid Deposit (IBD) of $2.3 million it already paid. If Bitflux fails to pay within the allotted time, it will lose the award, forfeit the IBD and the Commission will offer the license to Globacom at its losing bid of $23,050,001 million less the IBD it paid. With the successful conclusion of the auction, the proposed unbundling of the country’s broadband infrastructure market aimed at meeting the Federal Government’s 80 percent broadband penetration target by 2017, has begun. It will be recalled that at the presentation of a paper titled: ‘Open Access Model for Next Generation Optic Fibre Broadband Network’, the NCC through its boss had declared that: “The commission will go on to auction the available 2.3GHz spectrum license to aid last mile wireless access on a wholesale basis, and the last-mile connectivity will be deployed using wireless and fibre optic broadband.” Other steps towards achieving this goal have also been taken. On Monday, February 10, the Commission
L-R: Director, Channel Department, Huawei Technologies, Nigeria Limited, Mr. Vincent Zhou, Associate Vice-President, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, Mr. Dayo Abegunde and Assistant General manager, DCC Networks, CWG Plc, Mr. Gbenga Odegbami at the CWG/Huawei IP surveillance session held at the Oriental hotel, Lagos of allocating frequencies to interested investors in the telecoms market. Such is the quality of value addition and good regulation which the NCC has brought to bear on the sector. Nigerians are waiting to upgrade to a full multimedia ICT platform, leveraging on the broadband to maximise the capacities of their smart phones and other devices in video streaming, internet radio, information download and upload, etc. Yes, we need that extra byte, that strength that speeds up our navigation and research on the web, that delivers us out of the callously slow, small and near unproductive byte allocations our GSM networks currently permit us. It is worth stating here that for the purpose of transparency and fair competition, the NCC NCC tower, Abuja. introduced a computer-based announced that slots of 25MHz indeed everyone deserves with a princely $23. 251 million bidding approach it called the bandwidth are available in the to be congratulated. For the (twenty-three million, two “Ascending Clock Auction”. 3.5 GHz band in 27 states of Commission in particular, it hundred and fifty-one thousand The two competing firms the federation and the FCT. must have been a daunting task dollars), to outdo Globacom, were sequestered in separate The frequency is to be licensed screening and prequalifying two which had offered $23.0501 rooms with no communication on a state-by-state basis, bidders out of the total of 27 million (twenty-three million, facilities until finally a winner and interested stakeholders who had submitted expressions fifty thousand and one dollar). emerged. have been advised to submit of interest. In Nigeria where It is now the responsibility To the new licensee, one applications. The states listed regulators and operators of the licensee to unravel our must say: welcome to the largest are: Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, come under pressure from imaginations with one-touch services market in Africa. But a Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, subterranean interests, the NCC digital data services which we word of advice: no effort should Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, must have had a very raw deal. have yearned for in the past be spared to ensure efficient and Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, One must also congratulate decade. The beauty of the entire affordable services. Once this is Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Bitflux Communications for process is that Globacom is on guaranteed, the market will be Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, getting the better of our second stand-by should the preferred theirs for the taking regardless of Plateau, Zamfara, Taraba, Yobe national carrier, Globacom, bidder not pay up the license who has been in the field because and Sokoto. despite the latter having a fee within the stipulated time. there is an umpire who ensures Nigerians, the NCC, whole decade’s experience From the precedent set since vigilance every inch of the way. participants in the bid and investment in Nigeria’s 2001, license auctioning has Eradiri writes from process, stakeholders and telecoms sector. Bitflux parted become the preferred mode PortHarcourt.