MTN Nigeria (MTNN), the country’s largest mobile operator by subscriptions, has installed more than 100 5G base stations ahead of a commercial rollout of the high speed service from the end of this month.
News reports indicated that the base stations were deployed in partnership with Chinese equipment vendor, Huawei.
It would be recalled that The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) successfully carried out a mock session on Friday, December 10, 2021 for the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction for the deployment of the Fifth Generation (5G) network in the country.
The conduct of the simulation exercise was in line with the requirements stipulated in the Information Memorandum (IM) for 3.5 GHz spectrum auction.
The IM is a document that defines the process for the licensing of the 3.5 GHz spectrum band, earlier published on the Commission’s website at the inception of the auction process.
Using the Ascending Clock Auction System for the mock session, the three qualified bidders for the 3.5 GHz spectrum, namely MTN Nigeria, Mafab Communications Ltd, and Airtel Networks Ltd, participated in the software-based simulated auction exercise.
MTNN and Mafab Communications won the 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum bids.
Following the conclusion of bidding process’ assignment stage, MTN selected spectrum in the 3500MHz-3600MHz band for an additional USD15.9 million and was officially issued the licence after meeting the payment deadline earlier this year.
In line with the terms and conditions of the concessions, the companies are expected to commence the roll out of their 5G networks from 24 August.
