Following a successful bidding process which commenced in September of this year, Ghana’s second largest mobile telecommunications company, Vodafone, has won one of the frequency spectrum blocks auctioned by the National Communications Authority (NCA), enabling it to follow MTN in providing 4G network service to its customers.
The NCA announced yesterday, Wednesday 26th December 2018, that a deal worth 30 million US Dollars was reached provisionally after the aforementioned application process started in September.
Vodafone Ghana acquired the frequency block as a result of this process where NCA published a “Request for Applications (RFA)” and made available three lots of 2x5MHz in the 800MHz band, which is the frequency most devices tune in to access 4G services.
Vodafone and another unnamed telecommunications company submitted their applications with Vodafone coming out successful.
Back in December of 2015, the NCA auctioned two blocks of 4G LTE space at a reserve price of 67.5 million US dollars, which MTN bought unopposed, beginning their monopoly on 4G LTE services in Ghana up until this day.
The sale is confirmed to have been done lawfully, complying with Section 58 of the Electronic Communications Act of 2008, Act 775 on Spectrum Management, which outlines the NCA’s right for Frequency Assignment.