5G Rollout: the Biddings, Intrigues, the Economic Benefits
By Chuks Ofurum
The successful auction of two slots in the 3.5GHz spectrum band to MTN Nigeria Plc and Mafab Communications Limited, coupled with the planned issuance of the 5G license , Nigeria is set to reap from the many gains of 5G network rollout, which is expected to attract foreign direct investment that will boost the Nigerian Economy.
The 3.5GHz spectrum band will pave way for the issuance of a fifth generation (5G) licence that will facilitate the deployment of 5G network across Nigeria.
The auction, which passed through a bidding process, was keenly contested by MTN Nigeria Plc, Airtel Networks Ltd and Mafab Communications Limited, but Airtel Network had to exit at the 11th round, after bidding $270 million as it’s highest bid offer.
The successful auction comes with lots of intrigues, and economic values, which includes the instant $574.2 million that the federal government earned from the bidding process and the attraction to foreign direct investment from potential investors who would want to take advantage of 5G network rollout in Nigeria, among other benefits.
As a matter of fact, the development will give the country the opportunity of installing the highest 5G coverage in Africa which will assist in deploying of the highest security network in Africa. It will encourage an efficient operation of telemedicine and grow the level of financial inclusion in Nigeria. Although the main stage auction eventually ended at round eleven, with a winning bid price of $273.6 million for each operator, MTN however bidded additional $15.9 million to get Lot 1 of the spectrum, while Mafab bided additional $11.1 million to get Lot 2 of the spectrum, bringing the total amount raised to $574.2 million.
Giving details of the many benefits of a successful spectrum auction for 5G deployment, the Chief Executive Officer of Tetconsult UK and the immediate past Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (WTO), Shola Taylor, said the ultimate beneficiary of the successful launch of 3.5GHz spectrum, would be the Nigerian telecoms consumer, whole he said, would enjoy the enormous and real-time benefits of 5G technology, considering it’s high speed downloads, high internet connectivity capacity, with very low latency that would drive a faster digital transformation across Nigeria.
He commended NCC and the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy for a successful spectrum auction.
NCC had commenced the process for the auction of the 5G spectrum in the last quarter of 2021 and had, since then, carried out a number of activities ahead of the main auction. On October 7, 2021, the commission had published the Draft Information Memorandum (IM) on the auction of the 5G spectrum on its website, and issued a public notice in major channels, including print, electronic, and new digital media.
Comments on the draft IM were received by the Commission up until October 28, 2021.
On November 3, 2021, the commission published the final IM, and stakeholders’ comments thereon it’s website and the national dailies, and set the deadline for the submission of bids on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.
NCC extended the date for submission of bids on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 to Monday, November 29, 2021.
On December 1, 2021, the NCC announced the three companies- MTN Nigeria Limited, Mafab Communications Limited, and Airtel Networks Ltd- as having successfully submitted their bids in line with the requirements of the IM. The 5G network rollout is expected to revolutionize the Nigerian Economy, deepen broadband penetration and enhance Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda, as 5G has the capacity for low latency, increased broadband speed and faster download periods, with seamless internet connectivity.
5G is the fifth generation technology to 3G and 4G Technologies. It comes with low latency and high speed video downloads in few minutes.
Given the importance of 5G technology and the critical role of spectrum, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said: “5G technology does not only offer enhanced broadband and ultra-reliable low latency communications, it also provides massive machine type Communications, where lots of devices will seamlessly connect and interact independently with the internet without human intervention. Thus, enabling our Smart City initiatives and making broadband use cases a reality. According to him, the international Telecommunications Union Radio Communications Sector (ITU-R), conducted studies in it’s last two study cycles during the World Radio Communication Conferences of 2015 and 2019 (WRC-15 & WRC-19) and identified spectrum for 5G technology including the 3.5GHz band, which stands out due to its excellent propagation characteristics which offer both capacity and coverage.