2.3GHz spectrum sale: Globacom, Bitflux to know fate Thursday

The two companies were on Friday pre-qualified to bid for the auction of one frequency spectrum license in the 2.3GHz, having complied with the pre-qualification criteria set out by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the commission said on its website. They are expected to bid for the frequency on Wednesday and Thursday in Abuja, NCC […]

The two companies were on Friday pre-qualified to bid for the auction of one frequency spectrum license in the 2.3GHz, having complied with the pre-qualification criteria set out by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the commission said on its website.
They are expected to bid for the frequency on Wednesday and Thursday in Abuja, NCC said.
Daily Trust had reported Friday that only few foreign firms indicated interest for the spectrum auction.
A source within NCC had told Daily Trust that only few foreign firms showed interest in buying the 2.3GHz spectrum. The source attributed the low patronage by the foreign investors to the low confidence created by the controversy surrounding the sale of some spectrums few years back and also the non-competitive underselling of the more important valuable spectrums in 450MHz and the 800MHz spectrum bands to people that are close to government.
Interested bidders for the broadband license are expected to pay N368m ($2.3m), which represents 10 per cent of the reserve price for the license and also the Intention to Bid Document (IBD).
But a reserve price, which represents the minimum amount for an item on offer in an auction, has been fixed at N369 billion ($32million) for the 30MHz of the 2.3Ghz frequency spectrum sale scheduled to be concluded by March 14 2014, according to NCC.
The winner of the single 2.3 GHz spectrum will become the sole wholesale seller of broadband services to other service providers in the Nigerian market, the telecoms regulator said.