Mobile operators barred from buying three NITEL assets

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has barred four mobile telecoms operators in Nigeria from buying the mobile unit of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) put up for sale under the privatisation of the telecoms company.

The bureau said, "The Nigeria telecom operators, that is, MTN, Etisalat, Zain and Glo shall not be allowed to purchase the mobile arm, M-TEL, since they presently hold Digital Mobile Licence and General System for Mobile (DML/GSM) licences. To the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the purchase of M-TEL by any of the present GSM licence holders would present competition challenges and will conflict with regulatory guidelines and licensing conditions."

The bureau said in a statement on Thursday, that the barring of the mobile operators followed an approval from the commission. Christopher Anyanwu, the Director General of the BPE was quoted earlier as saying, "The NCC has obliged the BPE with its suggestions and has advised that NITEL should be unbundled into units and each sold separately with all bidders free to buy any combination of units subject to the following regulatory restrictions."

Additional restrictions Furthermore, the bureau also barred specific operators from trying to buy particular assets. For instance, Globacom was told that by virtue of its Second National Operator (SNO) licence, it cannot buy NITEL as a whole unit, as this "would leave Globacom with two SNO licences and would hence, be anti-competition".

Chigbo Anichebe, the spokesperson for the BPE, explains, "Because of Globacom's SNO licence, they will not be allowed to also bid for the domestic fixed telephony lines, as they already have the licence to operate their own." The company cannot also bid for SAT-3, as applies to Etisalat and MTN. Etisalat, MTN and Globacom have already paid the non-refundable application fee of $25,000 last month, and have been given access to the data room.

What mobile operators can buy

The mobile operators are free to bid for the Fibre Optic transmission backbone, the CDMA network system and Analog (TACS) system, domestic fixed telephony lines (for Etisalat and MTN only), and various microwave frequencies in Enugu, Lagos and Kaduna States.

However, Andrew Okeleke, the spokesperson for MTN refused to comment on the restrictions, saying, "I cannot comment on the issue as MTN has not got any official letter from BPE." Bode Opeseyitan, Globacom's spokesperson did not respond to calls or text message. But, a company source hinted that the restrictions might force the mobile operator to withdraw from the NITEL bid altogether.

"We may end up pulling out from the bid, since we have been banned from all the major assets of NITEL which Globacom had wanted to acquire." The source had earlier said that the firm was interested in acquiring the domestic fixed telephony lines.

Steven Evans, the chief executive officer of Etisalat, on his part, said, "We are surprised that the BPE and NCC could do such. Etisalat is yet to get an official statement from them." He also complained about the quality of information in the data room, saying, "There is not enough information in the data room and also the BPE management has not allowed the investors to physically inspect these assets," Mr. Evans said.

But Emmanuel Ekuwem, the president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, in support of the restrictions, said, "Globacom is already a second national carrier and the firm has the licence to operate the same services as NITEL. The telecoms sector must have sanity, when a company gets really too big and too powerful with a large coverage, that can affect competition in the industry."