Fixed line licences to be awarded next year

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will auction new fixed line licences early next year to help revive the wireline market and spur growth in the broadband internet sector. NCC chief executive Eugene Juwah told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai that winning bidders for the new regional licences will be those requesting the lowest government subsidies to build the network. ‘The government wants to put in an incentive to bring the price down,’ he said. The regulator also plans to sell two lots of nationwide 2.3GHz spectrum, primarily for the provision of WiMAX services, in the near future, while Long Term Evolution (LTE) spectrum – to be freed up by the country’s television broadcasters – will be auctioned off to telecoms operators by 2015.