December 14, 2021

The Government of Nigeria, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) – the National regulatory authority for telecommunications in Nigeria – in collaboration with its supervising Ministry (Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy), has successfully auctioned the 3.5 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum.

The 3.5 GHz spectrum will be used to deploy more efficiently, with incomparable speed, better broadband services. The two available lots (3500-3600 MHz; and 3700-3800 MHz) have been won by Mafab Communications Limited and MTN Nigeria Plc. Each of the firms will pay $273,600,000 to the Nigerian government as spectrum fees. In the preferred Lot bid, MTN bidded higher, so it got the 3500-3600 MHz, while Mafab got the second Lot (3700-3800).

My joy took oxygen, not necessarily from the amount to be paid by the successful bidders for the licences. I am particularly happy that NCC, as it did in 2001 and 2014, has carried out a fair, open, transparent, credible and successful auction of seminal spectra – one reason NCC continued to be benchmarked by other regulatory authorities within and outside the Continent of Africa.

As the winners Institute processes to commence deployment of 5G services, beginning from 2022, I am quite excited because of the derivable benefits from 5G. These include the ability to connect incredibly large number of devices with all working efficiently and real time; concrete reality of smart buildings and smart cities, including driverless cars; the potential for improved health care through telemedicine.

Remote interaction with appliances, machines or equipment without physical contact is possible with 5G in ways we have never experienced. I mean, depending on how you connect your appliances, you could be alerted right on your device when the milk in your refrigerator is exhausted. In other words, Nigeria is set to explore the real Internet of Things (IoT).

Indeed, as the telecom sector has served as an enabler of growth that reverberates other sectors of the economy, we expect to see exponential impact of digital culture in Nigeria onwards.

I am not a Darwinist, but I see lots of disruption emerging and the people who are willing and ready to adapt to changes, through learning, unlearning, and re-learning, are likely to survive the patterns, tempo, and sophistication of the emergent world.

As we can see, with Meta, even digitally-mediated sociality on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is up for changes.

I am thankful for being part of the history made yesterday (Monday, December 13, 2021)  as my colleague, (Dr. Shafii Ndanusa) and I served as masters of ceremonies while the 11-Round, 8-hour auction process lasted.

May God bless Nigeria.

-By Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, NCC Head of New Media, Courtesy Facebook