The duo of Zinox Technology Limited and BRINKS Integrated Solutions Limited have received approved from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to operate Infrastructure Company (Infracos) in South-East and North-East respectively, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms, the Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said the approval has the nod of the board of the commission.

He also said that with this approval, the number of Infracos licenced so far is now four.

ITRealms recalls that over a year ago, MainOne Cable Company Limited, was licensed to provide services in Lagos, while IHS got its licence to cover the North Central geopolitical zone including Abuja.

The Infraco licences, Ojobo further said were based on the NCC’s Open Access Model (OAM) in line with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of (2013 – 2018).

According to him, by the provisions of the NBP, Nigeria is expected to attain 30 per cent broadband penetration by the end of 2018.

As part of the initiative to achieve this, NCC, as the driver of this process, has so far licensed a number of companies to stimulate broadband penetration.

“These include Bitflux Communications Limited (Bitflux) for 2.3 Ghz and MTN Nigeria for the 2.6 Ghz licences,” he said, noting that as at December, 2017, Nigeria has attained 22 per cent broadband penetration.

He emphasised that with the licensing of four Infracos; MainOne Cable, IHS, Zinox Technology and Brinks Solutions, there are three more licencees waiting for approval to bring total number to seven.

“These are for South South, North West and South West,” Ojobo assured.