Nigeria telecoms regulator approves two new ‘infraco’ licences for increased broadband penetration

The board of Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved two new infrastructure company (Infracos) licences to deepen broadband penetration in the country

The two new Infraco licencees are Zinox Technology Limited for South East and Brinks Integrated Solutions Limited for North East, bringing to four the number of Infracos licenced so far.

In a statement signed by Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs of the NCC, the regulator said with the licensing of the four Infracos – MainOne Cable, IHS, Zinox Technology and Brinks Solutions – there are three more licencees waiting for approval to bring the total number to seven. The three outstanding are for South South, North West and South West.

Over a year ago, MainOne Cable Company Limited, had been licenced to provide services in Lagos while IHS got its licence to cover the North Central geopolitical zone including Abuja. The Infraco licences are based on the NCC’s Open Access Model (OAM) in line with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of (2013 – 2018).By provisions of the NBP, Nigeria is expected to attain 30 percent broadband penetration by 2018.

“As part of the initiative to achieve this, NCC, as the driver of this process, has so far licenced a number of companies to stimulate broadband penetration.

“These include Bitflux Communications Limited (Bitflux) for 2.3 Ghz and MTN Nigeria for the 2.6 Ghz licences. Other licences are in the pipeline in this process. As at December, 2017, Nigeria had attained 22 percent broadband penetration,” the statement read.