Swift Network, Cobranet Win 5.4GHz Spectrum

• Swift Network, Cobranet Win 5.4GHz Spectrum

Swift Network and Cobranet on Tuesday beat four other competitors to win the 5.4GHz spectrum offered for sale by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Each of the winners is expected to pay a sum of N27,659,347.10, being the final price arrived at after four bidders dropped out from the exercise as the price of the spectrum kept going up.

The spectrum will enable the operators to offer data services to subscribers in Lagos. Only two slots of the frequency were put up for sale in each zone of the country that the NCC had split the nation into for the purpose of the licence.

The slots for Lagos had to go for competitive bidding, as six operators offered to buy the two slots available for the state.

The bidders that dropped out at different stages of the auction, which held in Abuja, were Tizeti Network, E-Kennet, Steam Broadcasting and Juniper Solutions.

The sale of the frequency is part of the efforts of the regulatory agency to boost broadband Internet penetration in the county.

The National Broadband Plan envisages a broadband penetration of 30 per cent by the year 2018. According to the Executive Vice- Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, broadband penetration in the country currently stands at 21 per cent.