NCC renews MTN 800MHz spectrum license till 2034

By Favour Unukaso THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has renewed MTN Nigeria’s 800MHz Spectrum band licence. The approval for the renewal of MTN Nigeria’s first 800MHz Spectrum band licence (Channel 1) for an additional 10 years, is effective from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2034. This was contained in a notice MTN issued... Read More

Telcos propose 100% tariff hike amid backlashes

  By Favour Unukaso  TELECOMMUNICATIONS operators said they made a proposal of 100 per cent tariff hike to the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in their plea for hike in tariffs on services offered including voice, data and digital.    MTN Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, disclosed this on Thursday, when he featured... Read More

NCC approves MTN’s disconnection of Exchange Telecommunications over debts

By Favour Unukaso THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved the disconnection of Exchange Telecommunications limited from MTN over interconnect debt. Interconnect debt is the accumulation of stipulated amount of money recorded over a period of time for all telecoms calls that were generated from one network and terminated on another network. NCC in... Read More

MTN’s NTEL spectrum lease extension to boost 3G, 4G coverage

By Favour Unukaso THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved the renewal of the spectrum lease agreement between MTN Nigeria Communications PLC (MTN Nigeria) and Natcom Development and Investment Limited (NTEL).    This new agreement now includes coverage in all states including the FCT. This agreement covers the lease of NTEL’s 5MHz frequency division... Read More

Disconnection puts on hold as Globacom, MTN reach ‘agreement’

By Favour Unukaso  The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that MTN and Globacom have reached an agreement to resolve the interconnect debt issue, over which the former was to disconnect the latter.    This came as the 10-day pre-disconnection notice issued by the Commission lapsed today.     However, NCC in a statement signed... Read More

MTN gets NCC’s approval to disconnect Globacom from network

By Favour Unukaso THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted MTN approval to disconnect Glo from its network over interconnect debt.     NCC, in a document Monday, titled: ‘Pre-Disconnection Notice,’ notified the public and subscribers of Globacom that approval has been granted for the partial disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria due to non-settlement of... Read More

NCC orders telcos to completely bar unlinked SIMs by February 2024

By Favour Unukaso THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has ordered telecommunications operators in the country to implement full network barring on all Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards not linked to their National Identification Numbers (NINs) by February 28, 2024. The operators, including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, among others, have been lettered to carry out... Read More

FDI into telecoms sector falls as industry gets $399.9m in 2022

By Favour Unukaso THE harsh economic condition of the economy, insecurity and volatility in the foreign exchange market might have contributed significantly to the drop in Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs) into the telecoms sector in 2022 as capital inflow dropped significantly by almost 50 per cent.    According to the 2022 Subscriber/ Network Data Yearly... Read More

Telecoms operators record 22.3% revenue growth

By Favour Unukaso Airtel and MTN Nigeria grew their service revenues by an average of 22.3 per cent in their 2023 half-year (H1) operations. Specifically, Airtel said its mobile services revenue in Nigeria was up by 23 per cent, while MTN recorded 21.6 per cent to N1.2 trillion. According to MTN in its unaudited... Read More

Telecoms sector contributes N2.5tr to Nigeria’s GDP

THE telecommunications and Information Services sector in Nigeria has, in the first quarter 2023, contributed N2.508 trillion in terms of financial value contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), representing 14.13 per cent.   Figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the sector recorded a 4.3  per cent.  increase... Read More