The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has notified the public that the submission of responses in respect of the 3.5 Gigahertz Spectrum Band auction was scheduled to close on Wednesday, 24th November 2021.
However, due to the challenges posed to air travels as witnessed recently and considering that it may have some impact on intending bidders regarding the submission of their bids, the Commission hereby extends the deadline for submission of bids and Initial Bid Deposits (IBDs) to 5.00pm on Monday, 29th November, 2021.
All other events as scheduled in the Information Memorandum remain unchanged.
It would be recalled that the commission had early this month presented the Information Memorandum (IM) at a stakeholder engagement forum organised on 5G spectrum in Lagos, indicating that software-based Ascending Clock Auction format will be adopted, with a mock auction slated for December 10, 2021, as a precursor to the actual auction on December 13, 2021.
The IM provides information, conditions, obligations, financial implication, timelines and other necessary details on the planned 3.5Ghz spectrum auction.
In addition, the IM also explains the rollout obligations of the would-be eventual winners of the spectrum licence auction, whose reserved price has been pegged at $197.4 million (N75 billion).
The memorandum also states that only licensees, who make down payment of 10 per cent of the reserved bid price and with 100 per cent regulatory compliance would be allowed to participate in the auction while licensees with outstanding debts that have secured NCC’s approval for a payment plan will be allowed to participate in the auction.
Based on the IM, the auction comes with a 10-year spectrum licence and a minimum requirement of an operational Universal Access Service Licence (UASL).
