By Gbadamosi Oladimeji
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on Monday, insisted that there isn’t any plan to deploy the 5G network in the country.
This was made known in a statement by Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, while reacting to claims that the telecommunication industry plans to switch on 5G in Lagos on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday.
Dr. Nkemadu faulted the claims, saying the Commission had only approved a 5G trial test for a period of three months in November 2019 and the trial had been concluded and installation decommissioned.
Nkemadu noted that the NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta, had explained that the trial was to study and observe any health or security challenges the 5G network might present.
He added that relevant stakeholders, including members of the security agencies, were invited to participate in the trial.
However, the NCC spokesman stated that the agency would continue to maintain its policy of technology neutrality, and encourage service providers to deploy the best technology that would meet the needs of the society in a secure and friendly manner.
According to him, the NCC has provided clarifications of Frequently Asked Questions in view of the recent developments in which the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was linked to the 5G network.
Nkemadu stressed that the claims that there would be switching on of 5G in Lagos was false.
He said the agency also provided clarifications on the laying of fibre optic cables within Lagos and other parts of the country to the effect that the laying of additional fibre optic cables was to strengthen the existing 3G and 4G infrastructure.
The NCC official explained that this was aimed at providing robust and pervasive telecoms infrastructure to improve network performance.
“NCC has not issued any licence for 5G in Nigeria and, therefore, the mobile network operators (MNOS) cannot switch on such technology,” Danbatta was quoted as saying in the statement.
He added, “NCC is technology neutral. As such, we don’t license technology but assigns spectrum to operators for deployment of any service when allocated by the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC).
“As the telecoms regulator, we enjoin Nigerians to get accurate information from us rather than relying on information emanating on social media by some individuals out of ignorance to misinform our people.”
5G is the fifth generation of mobile technology which is an improvement of the 4G technology with enhanced capabilities.
It provides the platform for new and emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Big Data, to make life easy for people.
