Nigeria has restarted the process to sell off spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band for mobile broadband services, giving interested parties until 21 April to submit applications to take part.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) plans to sell 70 MHz of paired 2.6 GHz spectrum via an auction that is now due to start in May.
It had aimed for an earlier sale, but put the process on hold in November last year for administration reasons. It said it wanted to ensure that the licences would be available to the winners as soon as the auction concluded.
Under the new timetable, the NCC aims to hold a mock auction on 4 May and to conduct the auction proper over 5 May-8 May. It expects to be able to announce the provisional winners on 11 May, with the final result coming in early June, once the successful companies have paid for their licences.
The NCC has divided the available spectrum into 14 lots of 5 MHz each. It has set a reserve price of US$16 million per lot, thus it should raise upwards of $224 million from the contest.
Auction participants will be required to bid for at least four lots of spectrum and will not be permitted to bid for more than eight lots.
The licences will be valid for 10 years.
The auction is open to new players, but all applicants must be companies registered in Nigeria.
In addition, the spectrum does not come with an operating licence, but any new player that won frequencies would be granted a Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) upon payment of an additional 374.6 million naira ($1.86 million) fee.
Nigeria is home to five mobile operators: Airtel, Etisalat, Glo Mobile, Mtel and MTN. It also has a number of players offering fixed and fixed wireless services. By mid-2014 mobile penetration had reached 94% in a country of 168.8 million people, the NCC reported.
