No bailout for CDMA operators in Nigeria

THE Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has ruled out any form of lifeline for operators of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) segment of the Nigerian telecommunications sector.

Exective Vice Chairman of NCC, Eugene Juwah, said that the issue of bailouts for the CDMA sector will not be considered by the regulator because of its technology-neutral policy position.

Based on the technology neutrality model, NCC simply issues the necessary frequency spectrum to enable service rollout.

It is left with the operators to adopt any technology platform of their choice to support the deployment of such services.

The position of the apex regulatory agency comes on the back of growing agitation by stakeholders to check the extinction of the CDMA segment of the Nigerian telecoms market.

Over the last few years, CDMA operators have come under intense competition from bigger GSM networks.

According to official figures from NCC, at the end of November last year, the total number of active subscriber lines for the GSM sector reached 78.9 million representing a market share of 91.4 per cent while the mobile CDMA sector accounted for 6.2 million representing 7.2 per cent.

In a similar vein, the ongoing registration of mobile subscribers has also dealt a big blow to the CDMA market where players have had to clear their warehouses of their inventory of non-SIM based handsets at losses to meet regulatory compliance.

The regulator has instructed CDMA operators to ensure that they migrate to SIM-based handsets to enable them capture subscriber details in line with the registration of mobile phone users, currently underway in Nigeria.

SIMEON OGOEGBULEM in Abuja, Nigeria