Telecommunications operators and other Stakeholders have urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to make its auction process transparent.

The shareholders said this at a postmortem forum on 2.6GHz auction held in Lagos. It would be recalled that MTN emerged winner of six lots out of the available 14 lots in the 2.3GHz spectrum licence, auctioned four month ago.

Lateef Akintunde, a Director at Airtel, said the commission should review its bid price. He stated that the reserved bid price of $16 million per lot was on the high side considering the cost of spectrum rollout.

Ikenna Ikeme, Director, Regulatory and CSR, Etisalat Nigeria, on his part urged the NCC to combine expensive spectrum like 2.6 GHz, with other cheaper spectrum like the 700MHz and 800MHz spectrum that are less expensive.

Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta who was represented by Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs, explained that the growth of telecommunication in Nigeria has contributed immensely to the growth and development of the country’s economy and 2.6 GHz spectrum band will further help boost the industry.

“This positive impact can be accelerated with the pervasive deployment of broadband infrastructure. As most Nigerians today access the internet via wireless means, it is critical that important resources for last mile broadband deployment (like frequency spectrum) continues to be effectively, efficiently and transparently licensed for the pervasive spread of broadband services.

“It is in line with this objective that the Commission recently conducted an auction for the available Lots in the 2.6 GHz spectrum band.

“The Commission in consonance with its practice of collaborative regulation seeks to get useful industry feedback on the auction with the aim of ensuring the effective and efficient usage of available spectrum bands for the delivery of broadband internet access to Nigerians,” he said.