Reactions are trailing the trial test of the 5G network in three cities in Nigeria.
The reactions centres on: “How does one reconcile this development with the press release of 4th April 2020 by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy that no service provider has been issued license to operate 5G network in Nigeria? On what basis is MTN testing 5G network?.
Why the 5G network in Nigeria, after seeing the tragedy that has be fallen other countries, why in Nigeria?
MTN Nigeria PLC announced early last week that Nigeria has become the first country in West Africa to rollout a trial of the 5G cellular network technology.
The telecoms giant said it accomplished the 1st phase through collaboration between the Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy, the Nigerian Communications Commission, MTN and Huawei a Chinese digital company based in Abuja, ZTE another Chinese company in Calabar, and Ericsson in Lagos.
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The demo according to the telco will travel across three Nigerian cities – Abuja, Lagos and Calabar – to showcase the capabilities of 5G and its potential to enable economic growth, and social inclusion.
The 5G tests will run for three months on trial spectrum allocated to the MTN by the NCC.
Speaking shortly after taking a tour of the exhibition booths, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami; who issued a statement that no licence has been issued for 5G network operation in the country; noted that the 5G technology is critical to sustainable growth.
“I believe as long as we are able to handle the potential challenges, the deployment of 5G is very critical to our economy because of so many advantages of 5G, the issue of latency, speed and many more.”
He stressed the importance of an enabling regulatory framework and protecting telecommunications infrastructure.
Pantami added that he had signed a draft Executive Order declaring telecommunications infrastructure ‘a critical national infrastructure’ on the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the draft had been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami for review.
The minister described the proposed Executive Order as a short-term measure, stressing that the President has instructed that a proper legislation be facilitated to deal conclusively with threats to telecommunications infrastructure.
The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman highlighted the importance of the existing partnerships.
“Pushing boundaries is easier when your aspirations are supported by likeminded people. We are here today because of the support and guidance of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Nigerian Communications Commission who provided the trial spectrum used for this. Today’s success underlines the fact that we are good together.”
Chief Operating Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mazen Mroue noted that, “In collaboration with our technical partners and the support of the Federal Government, we are proudly putting Nigeria on the 5G technology map.
Also Read: How Visual 5G will Change the World. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-where-5g-will-change-the-world/
“As we continue to invest in technology solutions to meet the wide needs of our customers, MTN will continue to strengthen these partnerships as we move to build our 5G capacity in future, guided by the standards and spectrum set by the Nigerian Communications Commission.”
Following the successful demonstration in Abuja, the 5G-demo train moves to Calabar and Lagos. In addition to which 5G trials will be run in four other cities across the country.
(C) Control TV 2020.
