Page 103 - SAMENA Trends - January 2021

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

in Nigeria to renew our spectrum licenses in the the operator has commenced refund to the affected
900MHz and 1800MHz bands for a ten-year period has subscribers. This could have gone unnoticed, if not for
been approved by the NCC,’ commented Raghunath the quick intervention of NCC. We have plans to even
Mandava, CEO of Airtel Africa, adding: ‘This is our extend the forensic audit on SMS to other telecoms
largest market and we remain focused on bridging the operators. “So, like we did for SMS, we are doing same
digital divide and expanding our broadband capability for data to find out the reason for fast data depletion
in the country. On behalf of Airtel Nigeria and the Group, and it will be carried out across all Mobile Network
I would like to thank both the government of Nigeria Operators (MNOs). By the time the audit is completed
and the NCC for their cooperation and support in this and the result is out, perhaps we will have better
important process.’ (January 29, 2021) commsupdate.com information of what is happening in the data segment,
as it relates to fast data depletion,” Dambatta said. He
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said the Commission did its benchmarking recently
started probing data depletion in the telecoms industry and discovered that the cost of 1 Gigabyte of data
in line with its mandate of consumer protection. Its had come down below N500, which represents 50 per
Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, cent reduction from what it used to be. He said there
Prof Garba Dambatta, who spoke on the sidelines of was, however, a target to reduce data cost to N390 per
the presentation of ZIK Prize for Leadership Award to Gigabyte by the year 2025, adding that Commission is
him, said reduction in the cost of data might not provide almost there. The target, as enshrined in the National
the lasting solution to the issue of data depletion, Broadband Plan (2020-2025), is to achieve N390/
promising that the Commission would explore new Gigabyte in the cost of data by the end of 2025, but
measures that would address the issue. “NCC has the recent benchmarking that the NCC did, showed
instituted a forensic audit on the cost of data, just like that the cost of data has reduced to more than 50 per
we did with cost of Short Message Service (SMS) on cent from what it used to be at the beginning of 2020.
a particular mobile operator, where we discovered that For us as industry regulator, this is a good sign that
the operator unlawfully surcharged its subscribers to data cost is coming down and that the issue of data
the tune of over N100 million and we have asked the depletion as experienced by subscribers, is gradually
particular operator to make refunds immediately and been addressed. (January 18, 2021) thenationonlineng.net

The National Public Services Authority (Autoridad 12 November). The spectrum allocations are as follows:
Nacional de los Servicios Publicos, ASEP) has • Claro: 1710MHz-1780MHz/2110MHz-2180MHz;
confirmed that it has extended the temporary spectrum • Digicel: 1865MHz-1870MHz/1945MHz-1950MHz;
allocations awarded to the country’s four MNOs last • Cable & Wireless: 703MHz-708MHz/758MHz-
Panama year, from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021. As a result, 763MHz; and
the cellcos can all continue to utilize the frequencies • Tigo: 1710MHz-1780MHz/2110MHz-2180MHz.
free of charge to better serve Panamanian customers Note: Tigo’s concessions are held by Grupo de
during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The spectrum Comunicaciones Digitales; the latter holding company
was previously used between 1 October 2020 and formally took receipt of all of the licenses previously
31 December 2020. ASEP has published a series of held by Telefonica Moviles Panama (Movistar) on 28
resolutions based on Cabinet Resolution No. 88 (dated September 2020. (January 7, 2021) commsupdate.com

The Ministry of Transport and Communications the upcoming competition for AWS-3 and 2300MHz
(Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones, MTC) spectrum based on investment commitments for the
has announced plans to implement measures that deployment of 4G sites in rural areas, which the ministry
it hopes will inject around PEN1.5 billion (USD413 claims could provide an additional PEN1 billion for the
Peru million) into the mobile sector with the goal of expansion of coverage to 1,590 locations. The MTC has
also proposed modifying the methodology for renewal
providing more than 2,600 communities with 4G
connectivity for the first time. Commenting on the need of qualifying titles for coverage, which could add
for the network expansion works, MTC head Eduardo investment commitments for around PEN450 million.
Gonzalez explained: ‘The difficult situation calls for MTC notes that the renewal process is expected to be
making efforts and accelerating the expansion of completed by June. Finally, the MTC has proposed the
telecommunications services in the shortest term … introduction of a new fee for the use of spectrum for
The internet access gap between urban and rural areas telecoms services, potentially increasing investment
creates limitations for development and integration into from PEN7 million in 2020 to PEN130 million 2021.
the digital world.’ The MTC’s plans include structuring (January 13, 2021) commsupdate.com

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