One of the leading telecommunication giants in Nigeria, MTN, has claimed innocence over the decision of the National Communication Commission to transfer the 800MHz from Visafone Communication to it.
Two of MTN’s competitors, Airtel and 9Mobile had argued that transferring the 800MHz from Visafone Communications to MTN would substantially lessen competition in the data market segment and ultimately create a monopoly in the telecommunications industry.
At the Visafone Acquisition Public Hearing by the NCC on MTN Nigeria’s acquisition of Visafone and the controversy around the transfer of its 800MHz spectrum, MTN had commended the NCC for stimulating market growth and providing a level-playing field for all market players.
According to Johnson Oyewo, MTN’s Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, who represented the company at the hearing, the NCC had introduced a number of regulatory initiatives such as Spectrum Re-farming, Passive Infrastructure Sharing and Spectrum Trading, among others, which provide a level playing field for all market players, unlock access to essential facilities and will go a long way in deepening industry growth and dynamism.
“These initiatives which promote market efficiencies should be leveraged by all market players to their advantage. The newly introduced Spectrum Trading Guidelines further strengthens healthy competition as every market player can freely engage in spectrum trading which is readily available in the secondary market with some market players who are underutilizing same,” he said.
He stated that the NCC in its Competition Determination found the Mobile data market segment where the 800 MHz spectrum will be deployed to be effectively competitive and that competitors have failed to substantiate allegations of conducts deemed to result in substantial lessening of competition as specified by the NCC in its Competition Practices Regulations 2007. According to Oyewo, the competitors’ arguments were academic and based on fear.
He also went on to state that the ‘democratisation of spectrum access’ as well as the immediate transfer of the 800MHz Visafone spectrum to MTN, is one of the things that could fast track Nigeria’s target of achieving 30% broadband penetration by the end of 2018.
“Nigeria’s broadband penetration is presently at 21/22%. We are committed to the national broadband penetration which was why we bought the 2.6 GHz spectrum band and MTN was the only bidder then. We are working hard to expand our networks across Nigeria and the 800MHz gives an advantage of wider coverage using fewer resources. The ultimate beneficiaries are the Nigerian government, and every Nigerian who will benefit from the pervasive roll-out of broadband services and success of the rural telephony project,”
he said.
