The enforcement unit of the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), on Wednesday sealed Nokia -Alcatel office located at CBC tower, Lekki,
Lagos, for failing to pay N2million sales and installation license under
category ‘A’.
The Head, enforcement unit of the telecom regulatory
authority, Salisu Abdul said shortly after sealing the office said that
the mobile equipment manufacturer has been operating in Nigeria without
the license for many years.
He said that the license gives Nokia the power to
operate wireless transmission equipment and sales of manufacturing of
equipment among others, he said. He
informed that Nokia had applied for the license about three months ago but did
not complete the process.
"It is criminal for any service provider to operate in the
country without license. We have sealed the office until they comply. We have
to charge them based on the number of years they have operated without license.
We will use our discretion to charge them.
"The NCC is the sole regulator of the telecom sector in
Nigeria and one of our functions is the issuance of telecom licenses. In one of
our monitoring activities, we discovered that Nokia-Alcatel has not obtained
the required authorization to operate their services in this country.
"As a matter of fairness and transparency, we decided to pay
them a visit. We however discovered that they only applied for license about
three months back and are yet to complete the process for the license.
Basically, we have decided to seal off the premises of Nokia until they obtain
the requisite authorization.
"The license is barely two million naira to obtain. We have
sealed off the premises and we will not open it till they comply. The penalty
is dependent on the number of years they’ve been on ground. We might have to
levy a fine against Nokia before unsealing the premises.
“The license fee is two million naira. We all know that
Nokia has been in this country for a long period of time and for any entity to
provide a telecommunications service in this country, they ought to have
consulted the NCC to obtain the requisite license. Nokia is involved in equipment
manufacturing, supply and installation. What they ought to have obtained from
the NCC is Sales and Installation license" he explained.
It would be recalled that Nokia had bought its smaller French rival Alcatel-Lucent in a 15.6 billion Euro ($16.6 billion) all-stock deal.
It would be recalled that Nokia had bought its smaller French rival Alcatel-Lucent in a 15.6 billion Euro ($16.6 billion) all-stock deal.
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