Airtel Africa last week emerged as the sole bidder for the Nigerian Communications Commission’s 3.5GHz spectrum licence auction as MTN Nigeria decided to opt out of the auction.
MTN did not meet the December 5 deadline for expression of interest as stipulated by the telecom industry regulator.
According to the NCC, only two telcos (Airtel and Standard Network) expressed interest in the auction. But out of the two, Airtel became the only one to pay the $27.36 million intention to bid deposit ahead of the auction initially slated for December 19.
Given this development, the NCC said it will cancel the auction and go ahead to award Airtel the licence. The company will also pay the reserve price of $273.6 million for the spectrum licence.