By Matt Smith
DUBAI Oct 16 (Reuters) – Nigeria will award new licences to
provide fixed-line internet services early next year as Africa’s
most populous country aims to transform its underdeveloped and
unreliable network.
Nigeria is forecast to have 120 million mobile subscribers
by 2013-end, out of a population of 170 million, but its
internet network is undeveloped. The West African country had
216,000 fixed broadband connections in 2011, according to data
from the International Telecommunications Union.
Fixed-line licences will be sold via an auction, whereby
winning bidders will be those requesting the lowest government
subsidies to build the network, Eugene Juwah, chief executive of
the Nigerian Communications Commission, told Reuters on the
sidelines of a conference in Dubai.
“The government wants to put in an incentive to bring the
price down,” he said.
Fixed line will be divided into three tranches. The first
two will be to operate the electrical and non-electrical
infrastructure, while the third will be for licences to sell
services to end users. All will be sold on a regional basis.
The licence sales come as the regulator considers whether it
should again punish mobile firms for their poor service.
In May, it fined four operators – Etisalat Nigeria, a unit
of United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat, Airtel Nigeria
, Globacom and MTN Nigeria, a unit of South’s Africa’s
MTN – a total of 1.17 billion naira ($7.3 million)
after missing targets they said were unfair.
“We have a gentlemen’s agreement that no fines will be
issued until December, so they’ve more than six months to make
the necessary investments to improve the network,” said Juwah.
Continued…
