Because the curtain was closing in 2023, Nigeria’s long-awaited third 5G operator, Mafab Communications Restricted, despatched out a publish on its X deal with inviting customers to buy its 5G routers on its web site.
As of December 31, the corporate’s web site has been up to date with merchandise and the costs of the merchandise. Whereas customers wouldn’t be capable of buy knowledge bundles on the web site, the routers that are listed for N50,000 have a clickable button that leads via cost of cost right into a Sterling Financial institution-owned Mafab Communications Restricted. One of many 4 messages the corporate posted between 25 to 27 December on its X and LinkedIn deal with is inviting customers to “store” utilizing a hyperlink in its bio.
Mafab Communication, which was very a lot unknown ten months earlier than the December 2021 public sale, shocked the telecommunication trade when it outbid the second largest operator and a publicly listed firm, Airtel Nigeria, to safe one of many 5G licences, the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) was auctioning.
The corporate with no telecom footprint received a move to take part as a result of, in response to the NCC’s Draft Data Memorandum (IM), new entrants had been to take part within the bid. In the event that they had been profitable, the fee would subject the brand new entrant an working licence in step with the extant provision of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 and its licencing rules.
However two years later, Mafab Communications has taken a low march to launch its service out there. Other than in February when Mafab Communications organised a launch ceremony throughout which it stated it was now working in Abuja and Lagos however by no means demonstrated or bought any services or products to anybody. The corporate has largely stored its exercise near its chest.
The opposite time Mafab’s launch matter was within the media was when the NCC tried to persuade folks that the corporate had launched. The primary time the NCC did it was two days after the public sale, on December 15, 2021, the fee denied that it had any data that former Lagos State Governor and present Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a kind of bank-rolling Mafab.
The second time the NCC ran to defend Mafab was on 2 August 2023, when in an try to dispel stories that Mafab hadn’t launched its providers, stated with certainty that the corporate had launched 5G providers. Nonetheless, BusinessDay discovered that Mafab had but to promote any services or products in any a part of the nation as of the time the NCC was defending Mafab.
In lots of international locations, when telecom licences usually are not used after it was issued over a while, the regulator can request for it to be returned and it might be re-issued to a different operator. The timelines for returning the licence range. Within the US it may be as a lot as 10 years. For instance, the US Federal Communications Fee (FCC) in 2020 authorised the return of an unused 700MHz licence vacated by an operator Selection Cellphone. The licence was initially granted to Selection Cellphone in June 2008 and terminated in February 2019 as a result of firm’s failure to fulfil FCC rollout necessities.
In Nigeria, Alheri Engineering had the same story as Mafab Communications. Aliko Dangote’s comparatively unknown firm emerged as one of many 4 winners of the 2GHz and 450MHz bands public sale in 2007. The fee had set the reserve worth at $150 million for every of the 4 paired blocks 10MHz.
Whereas MTN Nigeria Celtel Nigeria, and Globacom went on to pay and deploy their 3G licence, Alheri Engineering by no means did citing difficulties with securing a GSM licence. The corporate had tried to purchase the defunct Nigeria Telecommunication Restricted (NITEL) to pave the way in which for its GSM enterprise. After a number of makes an attempt to dump the government-owned telecom operator, NATCOM, a consortium of seven Nigerian firms emerged as the brand new house owners of NITEL and MTEL by providing to pay $252 million, an quantity stated to have met the bid worth set by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE). NATCOM onboarded the property into its firm ntel. MTN Nigeria has since leased the property of ntel throughout the nation.
Alheri will promote its licence to Etisalat two years later for the sum of $250 million which is a major distinction from the $150 million it purchased the 3G licence from NCC and a assure of revenue from the transaction.
BusinessDay reached out to NCC for suggestions on the standing of Mafab’s operations and has but to obtain any response from the fee till the time of publishing this text. A consultant of the corporate nevertheless instructed BusinessDay that customers can now buy the router on the web site. It’s nevertheless vital to notice that the corporate’s management workforce had been conspicuously lacking on the up to date web site.
