The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, on Tuesday mentioned that lack of enough infrastructure to drive new applied sciences may gradual down rollout of 5G community.
The President of ATCON, Tony Izuagbe, informed the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that the 5G know-how rollout wanted extra infrastructure and extra connectivity between the infrastructure.
In telecommunication, 5G is the fifth-generation know-how customary for mobile networks which cellular telephone corporations started deploying worldwide in 2019.
It is the successor to 4G know-how that gives connectivity to most present cellphones.
Mr Izuagbe mentioned that the speed of adoption of the 5G know-how would depend upon availability of the infrastructure that may help it
With the issuance of 5G licences to profitable bidders of the three.5GHz spectrum by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, 5G-licensed telecoms operators have continued to roll out their 5G networks throughout the nation.
The operators had made loads of guarantees to the customers about the advantages of 5G, often known as the fifth technology community.
MTN had in September 2022 rolled out the 5G cell community, Mafab additionally rolled-out in 2022.
Airtel rolled out its 5G community in 4 states in June 2023, with a promise to cowl the complete states in Nigeria by the tip of the yr.
Mr Izuagbe mentioned: “There is enthusiasm about the 5G.
“I remember I was in a shop one day, and somebody walked into the shop and asked: ‘Do you sell 5G’?
“The awareness is there, and operators are getting a lot of requests.
“However, the infrastructure available will determine if more people will push to 5G. You know it is a factor of demand and supply.”
According to him, the 5G community requires nearly 3 times as many base stations because the 4G know-how would require.
”Also, it would require loads of connectivity to all these base stations,’’ the ATCON president mentioned.
He mentioned that the 5G rollout was nonetheless in its first part in Nigeria.
He mentioned that there was no cease date for know-how roll out, noting that even the 4G know-how was nonetheless being rolled out.
Mr Izuagbe mentioned that the 5G preliminary roll out was targeting main cities reminiscent of Lagos, Abuja, and Kano.
The ATCON boss famous that the 5G know-how would allow the buyer to have a number of gadgets related to the web.
“This is one of the things that the technology is developed for,” he mentioned.
He added that the 5G community would allow superior know-how, particularly in areas with excessive focus of organisations leveraging know-how and excessive information utilization.
He mentioned that the 5G know-how was an excellent enabler, significantly because the world had moved into the period of the Internet of Things.
“We are getting to an era where even your common household appliances become connected to the internet; 5G will enable that.
“There are also other things that 5G can enable.
“For example, when you talk about smart city, smart homes and having Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras around the country, all these can be 5G-enabled.
“The 5G technology is for faster speed, more communication between devices, faster upload, smart city-enabled – enabling more devices to the cloud – and faster broadband spread to allow more devices on the network.
“As we speak, in China, the 6G technology has already been deployed due to high data usage and heavy technological advancement,’’ he said.
Mr Izuagbe lauded Nigerians for enthusiasm about technology and for being fast adopters.
On deployment of 5G network at the grassroots, the ATCON president said that proliferation of services was more important.
He said that ensuring that everybody, whether in the urban or rural centre, had access to communication should be the focus.
“What we should be looking at is proliferation of services so that everybody has access to communication.
That is the first step. I won’t say 5G is not important or 4G. Access to communication is what we should be thinking about.
“We should not be carried away with whether the 5G technology is reaching the grassroots; rather, we should be asking ourselves what the grassroots people need or what communication is needed at that level.
“The issue is what the people need,” he mentioned.
NAN
