Nigeria gets 5th mobile phone operator

LAGOS – Nigeria has granted an United Arab Emirates (UAE) telecommunications firm a licence to operate digital mobile phone services in the west African country, an official said Friday.

Mubadala Development Company was given until January 19 to pay the licence fee of US$400 million by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), spokesman Dave Imoko told AFP. He said the UAE firm will then become the fifth operator of the Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) in the country of some 140 million people.”The company has to pay the fee by January 19 or it will forfeit the licence,” he said.Four other telecoms firms have been licensed to provide telecoms service in this communications-starved country.They are MTN Nigeria, Econet Nigeria (now Celtel) and M-Tel, which were licensed in 2001 and Globacom in 2003.Nigeria which used to have less than one million telephone lines before 2001, now has around 30 million lines.Imoko said more operators would be licensed in the coming years to expand telecoms services in the country.Nampa-AFPHe said the UAE firm will then become the fifth operator of the Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) in the country of some 140 million people.”The company has to pay the fee by January 19 or it will forfeit the licence,” he said.Four other telecoms firms have been licensed to provide telecoms service in this communications-starved country.They are MTN Nigeria, Econet Nigeria (now Celtel) and M-Tel, which were licensed in 2001 and Globacom in 2003.Nigeria which used to have less than one million telephone lines before 2001, now has around 30 million lines.Imoko said more operators would be licensed in the coming years to expand telecoms services in the country.Nampa-AFP