Cell phone operator MTN Nigeria Plc and Mafab Communications Ltd, a company licensed to provide and operate local interconnection and international operator services, are the big winners in the auction of telecom spectrum in the 3.5GHz band for 5G.Mafab Communications Ltd, a company licensed to provide and operate local interconnection and international operator services, are the big winners in the auction of telecoms frequency spectrum in the 3.5GHz band for 5G.

The introduction of mobile ultra broadband in Nigeria, which began two years ago, has been successfully completed. MTN and Mafab Communications were indeed the best bidders at the expense of Airtel Nigeria. Each of them paid $273.6 million and went well beyond the reserve price of $199,374,000. The auction was held on Monday 13 December at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. It had eleven rounds and lasted eight hours. Airtel Nigeria made its final bid at $270,000,000. The allocation of the frequency spectrum to the two winning telecom companies is on a provisional basis, until they pay the amount due by February 24, 2022.