- The Fifth Generation, 5G, network has rolled out in Nigeria.
It started in Lagos and will, in weeks, extend to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Owerri, Kano and Maiduguri.
The entire country is to be covered by 2025 under the arrangement.
The roll out was by MTN Nigeria Communications Plc on 18 September, 2022.
The other company licensed to also provide the service, Mafab Communications ltd, was given an extension of six months by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, to enable it obtain a Unified Access Licence and Numbering Plan that it needs to start.
On 5 May, 2021 the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComsat) ltd towards the deployment of Fifth Generation network services in Nigeria.
Three companies – MTN, Airtel, Masab – took part in the auction sale with the bidding starting from $199.37m. The reserve price by NCC was $197.4m.
The auction was concluded at $273.6m. MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Mafab Communications Limited ended up as the preferred bidders.
The validity period is 10 years and roll out of service starts in the first two years from the date of licence.
NigComsat ltd is the owner of NigComsat-1R, a hybrid communications satellite with transponders: 4 in C band, 14 in Ku, 4 in Ka, and 2 in L bands covering southern Europe, parts of Middle East and Africa..
The satellite has footprints in the C band only in West Africa where it is going to be used in this arrangement.
It will relocate to standard C band 300 MHz (3.9 GHz – 4.2 GHz) portion of the C band which is said to be more suitable for satellite services because of its cheaper terminal devices for end users.
It will then leave the non-standard C band 400 MHz (3.5 GHz – 3.9 GHz) for 5G use.
The cost of the re-location will be met by proceeds of the auction of the 5G spectrum.
The Managing Director of NigComsat ltd, Dr Abimbola Alale and the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, signed for their organisations.
The 5G will improve the network and connection speed over the 4G; just as the 3G did over 2G and 2G over 1G networks.
GSM made mobile communications possible and easy. With 2G one can not just phone but also send text messages; use the internet with 3G and added video conferencing with 4G. All these are much faster with 5G.
The National Frequency Management Council is joining the arrangement to deploy the 5G technology quickly in Nigeria.
