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The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has restated Nigeria’s commitment to begin the process of deploying 5G network this year.
“I want to give you the assurance that the 5G communication network is in the pipeline. NCC will [soon give spectrum] to mobile operators to start deployment,” Pantami said over the weekend at a special News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) interview programme, FORUM.
He said the decision to deploy the 5G network is coming after a thorough investigations, research, and trial absolving the technology of posing a security or health threat.
Timeline proposed for 5G launch
Last month, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), an agency under the purview of the ministry, announced plans to auction the 5G spectrum by the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021.
“The following timeline is proposed as optimal in the policy document 5G Spectrum Allocation (Q2 2021) 5G Spectrum Auction (Q4 2021) 5G Spectrum Assignment (Q1 2022) and Commercialisation of 5G Spectrum (Q4 2022),” said Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, at a function in Abuja.
Pantami said work on the national policy on 5G is already 95% completed and will be for approval soon at the Federal Executive Council to formalize takeoff of 5G services in the country.
After 5G pilot, Nigeria readies for commercial launch
In 2019, Huawei and MTN did a pilot of 5G network in Abuja to begin Nigeria’s race into the fifth generation of mobile telephony. But the process has been slowed down by controversies over security and health risks of 5G.
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Nigeria appears to have gone beyond the 5G controversies even as Kenya in 2021 join South Africa, which launched 5G in 2020, to lead Africa’s 5G run.
“We’d reached advanced stage of 5G, then, an issue came up that 5G was related to COVID-19; many people including the educated ones started circulating it without verification.
“Naturally, people are a bit scared and skeptical about technology so we gave enough time to do more consultation, creating awareness in local languages so as to engage our citizens to address all the challenges,” said Pantami.
