Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has issued a statement debunking allegations of non-performance against telecom firm, MAFAB Communications.
The Statement, signed by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, came in reaction to social media comments that the telecom company has not rolled out services 18 months after being issued a fifth generation (5G) licence by the NCC.
THE Statement from the Commission read in part: “The attention of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been drawn to some misleading comments on social media which falsely claimed that MAFAB Communications, one of the companies granted Fifth Generation (5G) licences by the Commission is yet to roll out the service, nearly two years after obtaining a licence, and one year after the roll-out date.
For a fact, MAFAB Communications is one of the two successful companies that won a 5G Licence during the globally-acclaimed transparent 5G Auction conducted by the Commission on December 13, 2021.
Upon fulfilling the condition of payment for the fee of $273.6 million in February 2022, the company formally received the licence on February 22, 2022.”
The Statement further explained that upon the issuance of the 5G licence, and in line with the rollout conditions, MAFAB publicly launched its services in Abuja on January 24, 2023, and in Lagos on January 26, 2023, targeting six cities – Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna, for service rollout.
The Commission noted that since then, it has continued to monitor the progress of rollout by MAFAB and has been regularly briefed about the status of infrastructure deployment for service offerings as conditioned in its operating licence.
“The public and all stakeholders should ignore the false and misleading information concerning the 5G rollout by MAFAB,” NCC advised.
MAFAB was one of the three telecom operators that won the 5G 3.5GHz spectrum licences in Nigeria. The others were MTN and Airtel.
The 5G network is bringing loads of benefits and opportunities to engender accelerated growth and smart living in the country. The technology also promises to bring substantial network improvements, including higher connection speed, mobility and capacity besides low-latency capabilities.
