Electricity Crises, Broadband major drawbacks to Nigeria’s 5G Commercialization

….assured consumers of reduced radiation on 5G

The adoption and commercialization of 5G technology with supersonic speed in Nigeria is still being threatened.

The regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) made this disclosure at the during a panel discussion sponsored and hosted by the commission at Social Media Week (SMW) 2020 held in Lagos.

Themed “5G Networks: Socioeconomic Benefits and Challenges”, the discussion which saw the participation of a broad spectrum of Nigerians was also attended by the Chairman, Board of Commissioners of NCC, Prof. Adeolu Akande

According to NCC, Nigeria will derive huge socio-economic benefits from commercial deployment of the Fifth Generation (5G) Networks, which will come with great potentials that will bolster Nigeria’s socio economic ecosystem for quantifiable growth.

Unfortunately, the commercialization of fifth-generation (5G) networks in Nigeria will be impacted negatively by power and fibre cable broadband deployment infrastructure gaps that currently exist in the country.

Speaking on this, the Director, Technical Standards & Network Integrity at NCC, Bako Wakil said that 5G is the newest generation of technology which “will bring about transformation in the country in the area of smart city, smart transportation, efficiency in medicine, a lot of automation, and 5G will control a lot of appliances and devices with respect to Internet of Things (IoT).”

In other words, “the difference between all other existing generations of technologies such as 2G, 3G and 4G lies in speed and data capacity. The 5G deployment and commercialization however, offers even faster speed, high latency and high capacity that will transform consumers and business experiences” Wakil emphasised.

While identifying the two major challenges to 5G network deployment as energy and infrastructure, Wakil noted that while the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is coordinating the NCC, the National Frequency Management Council, and the National Broadband Plan to address broadband infrastructure deficits, the poor state of electricity supply in the country needs to be addressed by other sectors of the economy because that matter is outside the purview of the NCC.

Still on broadband infrastructure, He explained that the NCC, having adopted the Open Access Model for enhanced broadband infrastructure deployment, has licensed six out of seven proposed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to deploy fibre access in all the 774 local government areas (LGAs) of Nigeria.

Speaking about NCC’s preparedness for commercial 5G, an Assistant Director in the Spectrum Administration Department, Kenneth Uzoekwe said there is enough spectrum bands that have been identified and can be used for the deployment of 5G.

“Six spectrum bands have been identified, so, I can say we have enough spectrum bands. All we need now is to finalise the re-planing and re-farming, so that those occupying certain spectra can be relocated to other bands,” Uzoekwe said.

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Uzoekwe told the excited audience that the InfraCo Project will help to bridge the 200 access gaps involving some 35 million Nigerians, who have no access to telecom services, as already identified by the Commission.

It will be recalled that in November 2019, the NCC facilitated the first non-commercial Proof of Concept (PoC) trail of 5G network in Nigeria, which was undertaken by MTN, a Mobile Network Operator in Nigeria. That trial was done to demonstrate the possibilities of 5G operations in Nigeria, preparatory to the commercial launch of the service by telecoms operators.

Therefore, the NCC panel session moderated by Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, NCC Head, Online Media & Special Publications at the #SMWLagos2020, provided an additional opportunity for the Commission to educate Nigerians on its plan about 5G network deployment in the country.