By Ismail Auwal
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has declared MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications winners of the two slots of the 3.5GHz spectrum auction for the Fifth Generation (5G) network licenses.
Mafab Communications beats Airtel to take one of the two auctioned slots that would see the new entrant pioneering 5G services in Nigeria together with MTN.
The bid ended at $273 million for each slot, as announced by Professor Umar Danbatta (Executive Vice Chairman NCC) who was the overseer of the auction.
The winners emerged after nearly eight hours and 11 rounds of auctions that began at $199.37 million as against the reserved price of $197.4 million.
MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Nigeria Communications Ltd participated in the live auction held at Hilton Transcorp Hotel, Abuja, which was conducted transparently according to the best practices.
Details later.
