Lagos — Nigeria has awarded four new telecoms licenses to local firms in an effort to further open up the industry to force prices down, the country's telecoms regulator said on Monday.

The firms, that make use of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), would now be able to offer roaming facilities across all licensed areas.

Before the licensing, CDMA firms were unable to offer services outside their specific geographic areas. The new licensing allows them to offer services across Global System for Mobile (GSM) licensed areas.

The 10-year licences would cost the firms 260mn naira (about $2mn).

GSM companies fiercely opposed the introduction of the new 'unified' licensing, but were not given the option of renewing their 2001 five-year exclusivity deal to operate nationwide networks.

The changes should bring down prices as GSM providers were known to change up to six times what CDMA networks were charging for the same service.

Nigeria is considered to be one of the world's fastest growing telecoms markets. However, teleco density is in the country is still amongst the lowest in the world and the regulator is right in trying to find ways of rectifying this by introducing fairer competition to the market.