By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it has pegged the auctioning price of 3.5GHz spectrum to facilitate deployment of fifth-generation technology (5G) in the county at N75 billion.
This was revealed by the Executive Vice-Chairman of the commission, Mr Umar Danbatta, at the Prize Presentation Ceremony of the 3rd NCC National Essay Competition on 5G technology in Abuja, explaining that 100MHz of the 3.5GHz will cost N75 billion.
The EVC disclosed that the auction was software-based, adding that provision had been made for the manual auction should the auction software fail during the process.
He informed that new entrants were allowed to participate in addition to existing licensees and only licensees with 100 per cent regulatory approval would be allowed to participate in the auction.
“The NCC is at the verge of auctioning Spectrum for the provision of 5G technology, and we decided to take advantage of the moment by motivating challenging our youth to be innovative and as resourceful as their counterparts in advanced countries.
“The controversies surrounding COVID-19 and 5G technology is now in the past.
“I want to reassure you that the economic benefits of 5G to Nigeria post-coronavirus pandemic will be huge, especially as almost all businesses and activities of government are migrating and offering their services online.
“5G will enable a new kind of network to Nigerians that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.
“Nigeria’s vibrant youth population stands to benefit immensely from the deployment of 5G as it will offer technopreneurs, technology enthusiasts, SMEs and Tech-startups platform to expand and network with other global players on a scale that has never been witnessed before,” Mr Danbatta stated.
In his remarks, NCC’s Director Public Affairs, Mr Ikechukwu Adinde, noted that the commission was committed to promoting innovations, research and development.
According to him, “The NCC, as the regulator of Nigeria’s dynamic telecoms industry, recognises the importance of this new technology to the nation’s development. Because of the need to stay ahead of the game, it has become important for the commission to catch these youths in their prime through the promotion of competitions that arouse their curiosity, and promote innovation and research just like other counterparts in developed countries.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka