…Rakes in N47bn in spectrum sales
…Adds N30bn VAS investment to economy
…Delays release of Visafone spectrum to MTN for fear of monopoly

By Prince Osuagwu (Hi-Tech Editor) & Gabriel Ewepu

THE Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communi-cations Commission, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, marched to the rostrum at the commission’s conference room Abuja, Monday, like a special celebrity. While every other person was seated, including his directors and news men from all around the world, he emerged five minutes later looming large with a prepared speech in his hand.

The atmosphere was like a president coming to give his maiden address to the nation.

Of course, he had just clocked year in office as the EVC of NCC but Hi-tech later discovered that Danbatta’s confidence was mainly coming from the statistics and figures contained in the small note in his hands.

Already his Director Public Affairs, Mr Tony Ojobo who made the opening speech had prepared the mind of invited guests that the commission would blow their minds with the statistics of achievement in just one year.  He described Danbatta as an extraordinary leader with impeccable leadership qualities. Not later than two minutes after he started addressing the world press, statistics came rolling in.

He disclosed that the commission raked in a whopping N47 billion naira from spectrum licensing and other usages in the last one year.

This is also as it grew Mobile broadband penetration to 20.95 per cent, and internet penetration to 47.44 percent, placing the county second in Africa just behind South Africa. Danbatta, also used the opportunity to review his 8-point agenda which he flagged off   at the commencement of his regime as the EVC of NCC.

Tracking his success story, he said that “The Commission has encouraged the re-farming of various frequencies to improve their efficiency. Through this process, some service providers, who were hitherto providing services on the 1800 megahertz (MHz) spectrum band have been allowed o re-farm and deploy services on the 4G/LTE band.

Through this, the commission has been able to revive some of the companies whose services have been hampered by the characteristics of the frequencies,” he said.

According to Danbatta, spectrum monitoring has been improved to ensure sanity in the industry, noting that “the NCC has recently deployed four Spectrum Analysers, leading to more efficiency in radio spectrum monitoring.”

He said that through efficient monitoring and value-driven usage of spectrum for provision of different types of services, revenue generation for the Federal Government though frequency allocation and renewal fees have improved from the previous years.

“More than N47 billion was realised in spectrum usage and licensing within the period under review,” he said.

He also  added that the commission has stepped up measures at curbing the rising cases of unsolicited messages through Do Not Disturb (DND) direction while finalizing work on the regulatory framework to engender well-regulated value-added service (VAS) segment of the industry which has   contributed over N30 billion currently to the economy.

Explaining some of the measures he has used to maintain balance in the industry, Danbatta disclosed that though it approved the acquisition of visafone by MTN, it was yet to approve the spectrum for usage. The revelation gives a doze of confusion as MTN prepares for a soft launch of 4G/LTE broadband services in Abuja next week.

The launch HI-Tech gathered would most probably be on the said spectrum the commission says it has not released.

He also said that chief of the reasons why the commission has hesitated to release the spectrum since after the acquisition a few months ago was to maintain balance in the telecom sector, considering MTN’s already position as a dominant operator in the Nigerian telecom sector.

In April 2013, MTN was declared a dominant operator in the Nigerian telecoms market, dollowing the result an empirical study commissioned by the NCC and carried out by KPMG. MTN controls the larger share of Nigeria’s telecom market with   well over 60 million active subscribers.

Globacom, which is the second largest player in terms subscriber base has around 35 million, followed by Airtel with around 33 million and Etisalat, 24 million.

Explaining the position of the commission in the MTN/Visafone deal, Danbatta said: “In a bid to promote investments, the Commission approved the acquisition of 100 per cent shareholding of Visafone Communications Limited in favour of MTN Nigeria.

Dominant operator

The result is that consumers, who have lost services under Visafone are now regaining services” He however added that however, the spectrum has not been approved by the Commission for MTN because, already, MTN is a dominant operator.

“Whereas, we are allowing MTN to have shareholding in Visafone, the spectrum has not been approved by the regulator to be used by MTN since we are still subjecting the use of the spectrum to public enquiry,” he said. Meanwhile, when contacted MTN said it would come up with a comprehensive response to the issue.