NCC, Operators To Meet Over 2.6GHz Licence Auction

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would soon meet with mobile telecommunications operators and stakeholders in the industry to come up with an amended framework for the 2.6 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum licence auction that would take place this year.

The regulator said this has become necessary following the circumstances that led to the suspension of the auction that would have taken place in December 2014, as well as other concerns raised by operators. The auction was suspended due to what NCC called “administrative handicaps’ which needed the regulator to clear illegal occupants of the spectrum ahead of the licence auction.
Earlier in January this year, minister of communications technology, Omobola Johnson, urged the regulator to release 2.6GHz in the first quarter of 2015.The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommended the 2.6GHz band for the provision of Advanced Wireless Broadband Services (AWS) to support the delivery of broadband wireless services nationally.
Speaking in Lagos at the weekend during a media breakfast with top echelons of NCC, Engr. Austin Nwaulune, director, Spectrum Administration at the Commission said the regulator would soon hold a stakeholders’ forum for the 2.6GHz spectrum licence that would establish the ground rules for the spectrum licencing auction.
NCC had initially put on offer 14 licences of 2 X 5 MHz FDD paired spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band ranging from 2500 – 2570MHz and 2620 to 2690MHz (totalling 2 X 70 MHz) for auction on a technology neutral basis. NCC initially set a Generic Reserve Price (GR), the minimum price at which a licence shall be sold for one lot of 2 X 5MHz for $16,000,000.
According to the then Information Memorandum (IM), NCC would licence 2 X 70 MHz paired spectrum available in the 2.6 GHz band. The 2.6 GHz spectrum was influenced by the need to open up the space for the delivery of present and future generations of broadband services to subscribers in consonance with the Nigerian National Broadband Plan of 2013.
Nwaulune said, “The 2.6GHz offers large carriers help to improve network performance and faster transmission. It is better suited for high data rates required to serve larger users in urban and high traffic areas and has potential to be used in a harmonised manner on a global basis.” He said the benefits to operators include reduced complexity and economies of scale.
Others are reduced interference across borders, lower network costs as well as availability of affordable handsets. NCC will continue with the ascending clock auction with exit bid with the spectrum covering all the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FCT).
In that Information memorandum, NCC said the Commission would license the available 2 X 70 MHz slot in slots of 5 MHz to be aggregated by applicants through the spectrum auction process. Each lot of 2 X 5 MHz represents 1 eligibility point. An applicant that pays the initial bid (IBD) for six lots would have a total of six eligibility points.
The reserve price for an applicant would be calculated as the reserve price multiplied by the number of lots applied for by the applicant. For example, reserve price for an applicant that applied for six lots i.e. six eligibility points is: $16,000,000 X 6 = $96,000,000.