Exclusive | Chairman: Mafab 5G service launches this December, pitches ‘superfast, open data’ - Technology Times

Mafab 5G service is to launch this December and deliver ‘superfast, open data’ to Nigerians, Dr Musbahu Bashir, Mafab Communications Limited Chairman, has told Technology Times exclusively while speaking on the rollout of his greenfield mobile network operator (MNO). “It is not true. We are not selling our licence, the Mafab Communications Limited Chairman tells Technology Times in an exclusive interview on Wednesday while reacting to speculations that the company was in talks to sell off the 3.5GHz spectrum won in the first round of Nigeria 5G auction conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on December 13, 2022, in Abuja. Mafab and MTN Nigeria Plc, the nation’s largest MNO staked $273,600,000 per licence to emerge winners of the 5G licences at the 11th round of the keenly-contested auction that Airtel Nigeria lost in the same round with its exit bid of $270,000,000. MTN Nigeria was to further offer $15,900,000 over Mafab’s $11,120,000 to be assigned a preferred spectrum, Lot 1 spanning 3500-3600 MHz while the latter was assigned Lot 2 (3700-3800 MHz) at no extra cost. [caption id="attachment_151623" align="aligncenter" width="1028"] Dr Musbahu Bashir, Mafab Communications Limited Chairman[/caption] ”What you will expect is that the subscribers will know the services that are launched and then can test them. You see, I don’t particularly look at my competitors for now because the market for 5G is a huge market. It is an enterprise-based market. Most of these speculations about my competition this this this. I am starting a new network and of course, I will have to do some catch-up because they have been in the market for over 20 years. That is a fact. So we would have our own market strategy and then we would work with it.” Dr Musbahu Bashir, Mafab Communications Limited Chairman. Mafab 5G will not be a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Dr Bashir also says that the Mafab 5G network will be delivering its own MNO delivering 3G and 4G services as well, rather than floating a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that would have seen the Mafab 5G network piggybacking on incumbent MNOs like MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9Mobile or Mtel. “It is greenfield,” Dr Bashir says, explaining that the Mafab will launch its greenfield network and will roll out previous mobile technology network standards including 5G predecessors like 3G and 4G. “You can quote me anywhere, Dr Bashir tells Technology Times noting that “by December we should come out, this December, exactly 29th.” While responding to the market edge recorded by MTN Nigeria’s prior pilot rollout in August, he says that “we are doing pilots too but after the pilot, we will just continue. This is a pilot but we are going, even this one is going to be commercial but more like a pilot because we are not stopping. Once we start, we are not stopping.” The Mafab 5G network is going live one year after the company won the 5G licence that has seen the promoters of the business opening talks with vendors to deploy a 5G network that will enable the Nigerian telecoms market’s latest entrant to offer the fifth-generation mobile service in the country. Mafab will be leveraging a last-mover advantage which the founder of the MNO is keeping very close to his chest but he hints that his company’s 5G network will bring ”fast and efficient data. We would play in the space of open data. These are only the two that I can give you straight away.” Mafab’s decision to build its network from scratch has seen the company searching for qualified vendors to provide a 5G network on a turnkey basis, according to documents reviewed by Technology Times work scopes including design, supply, and deployment of the network, and potential operations under an outsourcing and/or managed services arrangement. “We have technical partnerships with different companies but for now,” Dr Bashir says. “I wouldn’t want to mention the names of our technical partners because we have not firmed up our agreements with them. They are giving us the service backbone. Until we firm up the agreements after this launch, then we will firm up our agreements with everybody and make the general announcement that ‘these are our partners.’” The Mafab Communications Chairman says it is “speculation” that his company has opened talks with SpaceX, whose local unit has also secured a licence to roll out broadband service delivered via satellite systems. “That’s speculation. That’s speculation. Honestly, that’s speculation.” The Mafab 5G network’s brand will focus on delivering superfast data, and open data as part of a series of undisclosed catch-up strategies of the new-entrant operator, says Dr Bashir who is keeping specific details of the imminent network deployments plan very close to his chest. Under the 5G auction rules , spectrum winners including Mafab are required to launch commercial services not later than 12 months from the issuance of the licence, according to NCC. In the first two years, winners are to roll out service in at least two States in each geo-political zone of Nigeria across South-West (SW), South-South (SS), South-East (SE), North-Central (NC) including FCT, North-West (NW) and North-East (NE). By years 3 to 5, they are expected to add additional 6 States other than those in years 1 to 2, across the six geo-political zones; and by years 6 to 10, “operators are encouraged to roll out across all other States”, NCC says. [caption id="attachment_151622" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Professor Umar Danbatta, NCC Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive seen speaking at the first round of Nigeria's 5G auction held December 13, 2022, in Abuja.[/caption] The telecoms regulator requires 5G networks’ in each state to deliver a minimum of 5 sites in a state at a minimum speed of 100 Mbps Downlink (DL) “measured using the applicable test tools” with priority consideration for industrial areas, educational, medical and financial institutions within the State. While not wanting to be locked into a specific date, the Mafab Communications Chairman says that his network will be launching a hybrid of pilot operation and commercial services across six States in Nigeria with points of presence in major capitals that include Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu and Maiduguri. He is also keeping the figures spent on the network rollout very close to his chest beyond the publicly disclosed $273,600,000 paid to NCC for the 5G spectrum. ”No. I can’t do that now and not immediately because we are just going to launch in the six States that NCC said we should and this is the first phase which comprises the soft launch and commercial launch. And then we are going to move forward from there.” When asked what Nigerians expected from his Mafab 5G network, Dr Bashir has this response: ”What you will expect is that the subscribers will know the services that are launched and then can test them. You see, I don’t particularly look at my competitors for now because the market for 5G is a huge market. It is an enterprise-based market. Most of these speculations about my competition this this this. I am starting a new network and of course, I will have to do some catch-up because they have been in the market for over 20 years. That is a fact. So we would have our own market strategy and then we would work with it.” The Mafab 5G network will be entering Nigeria’s rising telecoms market that counts 214,696,227 active telephony subscribers with teledensity, which is considered as the number of active telephone connections per inhabitant living within an area now accounting for 112.47% as of October 2022. “Like you rightly mentioned,” the Mafab Communications Chairman says, “it is a Nigerian company, owned by Nigerians, run by Nigerians. What we expect from Nigerians is patronage and we would not fail them. So it is high time the meagre resources we have in terms of foreign exchange, we started saving it. “So my message to Nigerians is to be patient with us, to give us time to metamorphose into what we really want and what we want to bring to the market for everyone to see. So the problem with all of us as Nigerians is that we are eager and we feel some things with our speculative attitude. So I would say be patient with us and you will get the best service you need as Nigerians.” Mafab, which was incorporated on July 8, 2020, as a subsidiary of Althani Group has in the wake of the 5G licence been issued a Universal Access Service Licence (UASL) by NCC complementing the company’s previous licences for Local Interconnect and International carrier services, Interconnect Exchange and an International Data Access (IDA).

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