NCC board approves 2 new infrastructure companies to boost broadband

The board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved two additional Infrastructural Companies (Infracos) licences for the South East and North East zones of the country to boost broadband penetration.
Mr. Tony Ojobo, the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, announced this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ojobo said the approval of the licences was to deepen broadband penetration in the country. He listed the two new Infraco licensees as Zinox Technology Ltd., for the South East and Brinks Integrated Solutions Ltd. for North East.
Ojobo said with this approval, the number of Infracos licensed so far in the country has increased to four. “Over a year ago, MainOne Cable Company Ltd. was licensed to provide services in Lagos, while IHS got its licence to cover the North Central geopolitical zone including Abuja.
“The Infraco licences are based on NCC’s Open Access Model (OAM) in line with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of 2013 to 2018. By provisions of NBP, Nigeria is expected to attain 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018.’’
According to Ojobo, as part of the initiative to achieve the broadband target, NCC, as the driver of this process, had licensed a number of companies to stimulate broadband penetration.
“These include Bitflux Communications Ltd. (Bitflux) for 2.3Ghz and MTN Nigeria for the 2.6Ghz licences.” He said that other licences are in the pipeline in this process. As at December 2017, Nigeria had attained 22 per cent broadband penetration.
“With the licensing of four Infracos – MainOne Cable, IHS, Zinox Technology and Brinks Solutions – three more licencees are now awaiting the approval of the NCC board bring total number to seven and would include South South, North West and South West,” he said.