Nigeria: Mafab Communications is busy for the launch of 5G in August
July 20th 2022
In May 2022, the NCC set August 24 as the start of the deployment of 5G in Nigeria. While MTN has declared that it is ready to launch ultra-broadband on the date indicated, Mafab still has to settle a few details.
Mafab Nigeria Communications Limited wants to be able to launch fifth generation (5G) mobile technology in Nigeria as early as August 24 as planned by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). To this end, the company has started the process with the regulator to obtain a Unified Access Service License (UASL) which should cost it 374.6 million naira (902,000 USD).
Mafab Communication is, along with MTN, one of the two winners of the telecom frequency spectrum auction for 5G in December 2021. The company got away with 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band for $273.6 million. It then only had an international data access license obtained in July 2020. Which does not allow it to provide telecommunications services in Nigeria.
Last May, when delivering the final 5G spectrum licensing letters to Mafab and MTN, the NCC asked them to start rolling out the new technology from August 24. An MTN representative then said that the company was ready to launch 5G on the date indicated.
“ In fact, we hope that our business license will be issued soon, and as soon as it is, the president of the company will make a statement. We might surprise everyone and be online before the stated date ,” Mafab Technical Advisor Kingsley Uwazie said recently on the sidelines of the NCC’s Emerging Technology Stakeholder Advisory Forum.
The operational license that Mafab is currently pursuing should allow it to provide not only 5G, but also 4G, 3G, and any other related service. The company, however, did not disclose its launch strategy or whether it intended to acquire an existing mobile network operator. “ We are looking at various options, as I said, we are working, that’s why we are not talking ,” Mr Uwazie said.
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