The telecom company has now paid its IBD of $27.36 million, which is 10% of the reserve price of $273.6 billion.
The final two lots scheduled for sale in 2022 are Lot "A" (3400-3500MHz) and Lot "C" (3600-3700MHz).
Only two companies filed bids for the 3.5GHz frequency band auction before the deadline of Monday, December 5, 2022, to pay IBD, according to the commission's announcement on Wednesday.
The firms' names were Airtel Networks Limited (Airtel) and Standard Network & Connections Limited (Standard Network).
NCC claims that Standard Network requested a delay but was turned down.
As a result, it declared that the Airel bids would be closed and the assignment procedure would start.
The assignment step includes an auction where the winning bidder (or bidders) get to decide when the initial fee is payable in order to resolve such disputes.
Only Airtel paid the intention-to-bid deposit (IBD) as required by the information memo (IM), according to the statement. Standard Network sent an email asking for the deadline to be extended by twelve (12) working days, but this was unacceptable given the auction's schedule.
"Airtel has won the offer because it has complied with all requirement in the IM.
As a result, there won't be any more bids, and the commission will move on to the assignment step in accordance with the information note guiding the licencing process that was issued.
The IM, meantime, states that the remaining lot will be offered to any winner who chooses not to participate in the assignment phase.
The assignment step may include as many rounds as necessary, but the minimum selections for each round are $11,120,000.
MTN and Mafab Communications took home the top prizes in the 5G spectrum auction that took place last year, while Airtel withdrew from the competition.