The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has officially commenced the auctioning of one slot of 30 MHz nationally available in the 2.3 GHz band for the provision of wholesale broadband services in the country

The auctioning of the bandwidth is part of the commission’s plan to have a wholesale broadband provider in the country. The auction is expected to take place towards the end of January next year.

As part of the NCC’s ‘Open Access Broadband Strategy’, the telecoms watchdog has opted to assign the slot for the delivery of broadband wireless access services at a wholesale level, in a move planned to provide internet service providers (ISPs) and other retail telecoms service providers with the requisite bandwidth to service their subscribers.

Announcing the official commencement of the spectrum sale, the commission said it was adopting an auction process to ensure transparency in the assignment of the available spectrum.

The NCC’s head of public affairs, Tony Ojobo, has said that an information memorandum detailing the qualification criteria, auction processes, requisite forms and other key information has been made available at the commission’s head office and on its official website (http://www.ncc.gov.ng ) to guide all interested stakeholders.

A statement by the executive chairman and chief executive officer of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, has further read, “The Commission invites expression of interest under the subject “2.3 GHz auction-expression of Interest within three weeks.”