The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved the renewal of mobile market leader MTN Nigeria’s operating spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands.
With an original expiry date of February 2016, the cellco’s spectrum was issued along with a Digital Mobile Licence (DML) in 2001, but has now been extended to 31 August 2021.
In a press release on its website, South Africa-based MTN Group said a total of USD94.225 million is payable as a spectrum fee for the five-year extension period. The fee must be paid by 31 December 2015 and the extension is ‘conditional upon MTN fulfilling all its regulatory obligations’.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, MTN Nigeria was last week fined NGN1.04 trillion (USD5.2 billion) by the NCC for its failure to meet a deadline to disconnect around 5.1 million unregistered subscribers.
MTN Group says that it is currently in discussions with the NCC and other Nigerian authorities to resolve the matter. [myad]