Airtel Nigeria has turned out to be the only qualified bidder for the recently announced bid for 2nd phase of the 3.5GHz Spectrum Auction as thrown open by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the nation’s telecommunications regulatory body.
A statement released on Wednesday by the Commission, notes that “by the close of business on Monday, December 5, 2022, only two companies expressed interest in the auction of the 3.5GHz Spectrum band.”
The companies were Airtel Networks Limited and Standard Network & Connections Limited, trading as Standard Networks.
The Commission however confirmed that only Airtel Networks was able to pay the Intention to Bid Deposit (IBD) of twenty-seven million, three hundred and sixty thousand US Dollars ($27,360,000.00) by the stipulated closing date of December 5, 2022.
In the statement that was signed by the Director, Public Affairs of the Commission, Reuben Muoka, NCC noted: “However, only Airtel paid the Intention to Bid Deposit (IBD) as stipulated in the Information Memorandum (IM) whereas, Standard Network sent an email appeal for the deadline to be extended by twelve (12) working days which was not acceptable in view of the auction timetable.
Having met all the provision in the IM, Airtel has, therefore, emerged as the sole Bidder.
Consequently, there shall be no further bidding and the Commission will proceed to the Assignment Stage in line with the published Information Memorandum guiding the licensing process.”
It will be recalled that by the provisions of the Information Memorandum and timetable for auction of two slots of 100MHz in the 3.5GHz Band, released last month by the NCC, Application Start Date was Monday, November 21, 2022, with December 05, 2022 as the end date for submission of application, and end date for payment of mandatory Intention-To-Bid Deposit (IBD), heralding the end of the Pre-Qualification Stage and notification of qualified bidders on December 09, 2022.
Going by the IM, a mock auction will take place on December 16, while the main auction will be held on December 19, 2022.
After the auction, publication of provisional winners and notification of provisional award of licence will be done on December 21, 2022, thereafter, winners will have a 30-day period for payment for Spectrum Licence and Operational Licence (where applicable) by January 20, 2023.
Final result of successful winners will be published on January 23, 2023.
However, Airtel being the sole Bidder for the spectrum, will now move to the assignment stage and will pay the Reserve Price (RP) of Two Hundred and Seventy-Three Million and Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only (US$273,600,000.00) or its equivalent in Naira at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate at the time of the auction, for one Lot of 100MHz Time-division duplexing (TDD) for a ten (10) year licence tenure.
