By Prince Osuagwu (HI-Tech Editor)
The Nigerian Communications Commission NCC, has disclosed that though it approved the acquisition of visafone by MTN, it was yet to approve the spectrum for usage.

This is coming as MTN prepares for a soft launch of 4G/LTE broadband services in Abuja next week.
The launch Vanguard gathered would most probably be on the said spectrum the commission says it has not released.

The Executive Vice Chairman, EVC of the commission, Prof Umar Danbatta in an interaction after addressing a world press conference in Abuja to commemorate his one year in office, made the revelation distinguishing between approving the sale and releasing the spectrum for usage.

He also said that the main reasons why the commission has hesitated in releasing 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, following 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. The result is that consumers, who have lost services under Visafone are now regaining services”

He however added that, the spectrum has not 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 will come up with a comprehensive response to the issue
Danbatta also added that some of the things the commission has done to ensure massive and robust broadband availability in the country was to open the process for the allocation of frequencies in the 70/80 GHz band (E-Band) while approval has been given for the deployment of 4G Long Term Evolution Technology by new owners of NITEL, NATCOM Development and Investment Limited”.

NATCOM trading under the name nTel, launched the first VoLTE call on February 25, this year.

Danbatta also said that the need to optimise the benefits of spectrum has also been embarked upon to deepen broadband access.

“The Commission has encouraged the re-framing of various frequency 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 o revive some of the companies whose services have been hampered by the characteristics of the frequencies,” he said