NCC approves new infraco licences for south-east, north-east

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) board has approved two additional infrastructure company (infraco) licences for the south-east and north-east regions of the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, Tony Ojobo, NCC director of public affairs, said the approval is to deepen broadband penetration in the country.

He listed the infraco licences to include Zinox Technology Limited for south-east and Brinks Integrated Solutions Limited for north-east.

“The infraco licences are based on the NCC’s Open Access Model (OAM) in line with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of (2013 – 2018),” the statement read.

“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 licensed 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% broadband penetration.”

The approval brings to four the number of infracos licensed in the country.

Others are MainOne Cable Company Limited – licensed to provide services in Lagos and IHS – licensed to cover the north-central geopolitical zone including Abuja.

On Tuesday, the house of representatives urged the federal government to implement the national broadband plan.