Reps query NCC’s 2.3GHZ broadband spectrum auction
The announcement by NCC that two firms, Bitflux Communications Ltd and Globacom Ltd are the only shortlisted bidders to participate in the forthcoming 2.3GHz Frequency Auction is shocking to many. The dominant feeling among the major operators in the industry is that Glo as a second national operator with its huge financial strength is not supposed to take part in the bid. Glo’s participation makes the bid an unfair competition which is not healthy for growth of the industry because the survival of the upcoming operators in the industry is clearly threatened.
Baring the Nigerian Communications Commission giving a good explanation, one is surprised that the lack of interest shown in the license tells a very bad story of the industry. And that our Second National Operator is also on the list and on its way to cornering the license into its bouquet of licenses gives serious worry. Industry search shows that those who constitute Bitflux Communications Ltd are young enterprising Nigerian professionals who have made a point of excellence in the industry although they are far from being money bags. Bitflux is a Consortium of VDT Communications Ltd, Bitcom Systems Ltd and Superflux International Ltd. These are the companies that are the hopes of the industry when the prospects of a well managed broadband landscape is considered.
VDT Communications Ltd for instance is an ISO 9001:2008 Certified company and winner of several awards including “Bulk Internet Provider 2011 & 2012” and “Wireless Backhaul Provider 2009 & 2010”, provides digital leased circuit, wireless network and corporate internet services. The company operates one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in the country primarily by the convergence of multiple networks into one. The company’s Network infrastructural design is structured towards providing a broad range of end-to-end efficient and reliable IP-based (data and voice communications) services across West Africa while building a long term, trusted partnership with its clients. This is not a protest against Globacom but a strong feeling against monopoly. Thus the management of the 2.3G spectrum bid raises a number of questions begging for answers:
-Is money or quality service to the end-users the primary objective of the sale of the 2.3G Spectrum?
-Is it the role of NCC to encourage monopoly rather than ensure the totality of industry balanced health and growth?
-Shouldn’t the role of NCC fit into the overall national objectives of encouraging the growth of SME’s and sustaining employments in our country?
Small operators are being boxed into an ugly corner and one feels thoroughly ashamed unless NCC offers a satisfactory explanation on how it has managed the industry to lead these small operators to this dead end.
One may ask whether there is anything legally wrong in Globacom picking up the available licenses and the right answer will be that the purpose of regulation goes far beyond playing legally but more with the need to examine legal, moral and industry obligation, make interventions and go ahead to legislate what ordinarily would end up having an industry where the yawning gaps between peoples and classes are truly reduced. Of course we cannot pretend that it is all good that our Second National Operator for eight years has no known rollout of Fixed services and you wonder what the whole essence of regulation is about! Nothing may be wrong legally, nothing may even be wrong morally, but something must be definitely wrong with us as a nation. Time will tell.