Business
MTN Nigeria, Mafab get approval to rollout 5G network August 24
MTN Nigeria and its market rival, Mafab Communications Limited have received greenlight to roll out the Fifth Generation (5G) network in the third quarter of this year.
Ripples Nigeria had reported that MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications had paid $273.6 million for the 5G network license following Airtel Nigeria’s inability to further compete for the license.
The newspaper also reported that the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) was stalling the rollout of the network.
MTN Nigeria had been quiet on its rollout period due to the NCC’s delay in issuing the license.
However, in a statement issued on Wednesday by its Director of Public Affairs, Ikechukwu Adinde, the commission said the rollout would begin on August 24.
READ ALSO: MTN Nigeria generates N471bn from airtime, data sales in three months
The y’ello network and Mafab Communications have two years to operate before NCC issues three more licences.
This means Airtel Nigeria and Globacom will not be able to offer their subscribers a 5G service until 2024 unless they buy the license from Mafab.
Adinde said the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Umar Dambatta, briefed the commission’s board on the status of the spectrum auction during at a meeting on April 20 and April 21 in Abuja.
The statement read: The final letters on the awards of 5G spectrum had been distributed to MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications with the two licensees now “expected to accelerate deployment of 5G network that will usher Nigeria into a more robust Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and a more digitised Nigerian economy.”
“In line with the terms and conditions of the 5G license, the licensees are expected to commence the rollout of 5G services effective from August 24, 2022.”
Nigeria is already behind countries like South Africa where MTN and Vodacom began the deployment of the 5G network in 2020.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...