FOUR operators including some indigenous Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies are currently competing and hoping to become the sole broadband Infrastructure Company (InfraCo) for the Lagos region in the proposed licensing by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
According to The Guardian investigations, the four operators are MainOne Cables; Zinox Telecoms (an arm of Zinox Group); Trussnet Limited and IHS Consortium. They are hoping to become sole broadband infrastructure provider for the service providers.
The four firms, The Guardian learnt, had submitted bids for the licence to the NCC about two months ago. The commission is currently working on the evaluation modalities for the process that will eventually bring out the winner.
After the evaluation, NCC is expected to conduct the auction that will eventually pick one of the four firms as the InfraCo for the Lagos region. The commission had earlier announced that it would be licensing seven InfraCos for the country, stressing that six will be for the geo-political zones each in Nigeria, while Lagos will have one operator because of its peculiarity.
In fact, out of about 140 countries globally surveyed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on household Internet penetration, Nigeria ranked 87 with 7.8 per cent penetration while Korea Republic ranked number one globally with 98.1 per cent.
African countries including Morocco (29 and 46 per cent); South Africa (37 and 39.4 per cent); Egypt (44 and 34.5 per cent); Ghana (46 and 31.8 per cent); Tunisia (65 and 18.2 per cent); Namibia (68 and 16 per cent); Libya (69 and 15.9 per cent); Kenya (72 and 14.2 per cent); Gabon (84 and 8.8 per cent) and Angola (86 and 7.8 per cent) are far ahead of Nigeria.
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