Ghana’s telecom regulator moved its long-running 5G spectrum sale into its financial stage on Friday, opening and ranking sealed price bids for the 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 3 GHz bands used for mobile broadband.
The National Communications Authority said in a statement that the process, the country’s first competitive multi-operator spectrum auction, produced a mixed outcome: one band settled, one undersubscribed, one oversubscribed.
The result narrows Ghana’s 5G rollout to a contest between its two dominant carriers, even though a third company was cleared to compete just two days earlier.
The 700 MHz Band Is Done
Scancom Plc, which operates as MTN Ghana, was the only qualified bidder for the 700 MHz band and took both lots it applied for — the maximum allowed to a single applicant under the licensing rules. The two lots carried a combined license fee of $100.9 million, the NCA said.
Low-band spectrum like 700 MHz travels farther and penetrates buildings better than higher frequencies, making it valuable for extending coverage into rural areas rather than boosting speeds in dense cities. MTN’s uncontested win locks in the segment of the auction most directly tied to nationwide reach.
The Other Two Bands Split in Opposite Directions
The 2.3 GHz band, with five lots on offer, drew bids for only four, from Telecel Ghana and Goal Telecommunications. The NCA classified it as under-subscribed and said the next stage would proceed under the sale’s existing rules — typically meaning remaining lots go to bidders who want more, or the shortfall is addressed separately.
The 3 GHz band tells a different story. Four lots were sought against three available, with MTN and Telecel both bidding. That band is over-subscribed, the regulator said, setting up a scramble for mid-band spectrum, the frequency range most closely associated with 5G’s speed gains.
The NCA said it will announce final outcomes for both bands once the remaining steps in the licensing process conclude, and will notify successful applicants directly.
The Bidder That Didn’t Show Up
The notable absence is Goal Telecommunications’ bid for the 3 GHz band. The company was one of three qualified applicants named by the NCA on September 9 — a distinction that made headlines across Ghana’s telecom press, since it marked the first time in years that MTN and Telecel faced a credible new entrant in spectrum bidding.
Yet in Friday’s bid opening, Goal Telecommunications appears only in the 2.3 GHz column. It did not submit a price offer for 3 GHz, and it made no bid at all for 700 MHz.
The press release does not explain why. It is possible Goal simply chose to compete only where its business case was strongest, or that financing constraints limited how many bands it could pursue at once.
Either way, the qualification stage’s biggest storyline — a genuine third competitor — has so far translated into a single-band bid, not the three-way contest some coverage anticipated.
Why MTN Faces Different Math
MTN’s dominance in this auction comes against a backdrop the NCA has been trying to correct. Under the sale’s rules, MTN — designated by the regulator as having significant market power — pays a 40 percent premium on its bids relative to other qualified bidders, a mechanism the NCA adopted specifically to keep the newly opened market from tilting further toward the incumbent.
MTN currently accounts for roughly four in five mobile internet connections in Ghana.
That premium did not stop MTN from taking both 700 MHz lots outright, and it remains a bidder in the contested 3 GHz round.
A Longer Story Behind the Numbers
This auction exists because an earlier plan failed. Ghana had granted Next Gen Infraco a decade-long exclusive right to build a single wholesale 5G network for the entire country. That arrangement produced only 49 operational sites by March 2026, far short of even a scaled-back target of 1,200 sites by 2027.
The government revoked NGIC’s exclusivity this year and opened the bands to direct competition among carriers instead — the process now nearing its financial conclusion.
What the NCA has not disclosed is what happens to NGIC’s infrastructure, or whether its shortfall factored into the reserve pricing set for this round. Those questions, along with Goal’s absent bids, remain open as the regulator moves toward finalizing the 2.3 GHz and 3 GHz outcomes.
