COVID-19 Technology: No 5G Licences Issued in Nigeria, NCC Declares

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has dismissed the “mischievous statement” making the rounds on social media that the Nigerian telecoms industry was planning to switch on 5G in Lagos State between May 10 and 12.

There have been growing speculations on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites by some faceless individuals or groups who attributed the recent high death toll in Kano State to the launch of 5G technology.

The commission, however, refuted such insinuations, stating unequivocally that there’s no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment.

‘’NCC has not issued any licence for 5G in Nigeria and therefore the mobile network operators (MNOS) cannot switch on such technology. The claim that there will be switching on of 5G in Lagos is false in its entirety.

“NCC is technology neutral as such we don’t license technology but assign spectrum to operators for deployment of any service when allocated by 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,” said NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Umar Danbatta.

It would be recalled that NCC in November 2019 approved trial test for 5G for a period of three months and that the trial had been concluded and installation decommissioned.

Danbatta said ‘’the trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the 5G network might present.”

He added: “Relevant stakeholders including members of the security agencies were invited to participate during the trial.”

The commission assured that it would continue to maintain its policy of technology neutrality and would continue to encourage service providers to deploy the best technology that would  meet the needs of the society in a secured and friendly manner.

NCC has been providing clarifications via Frequently Asked Questions on 5G in view of the recent developments in which misleading materials with no proven evidence are being circulated to link Coronavirus or COVID-19 with 5G technology.

The commission also provided clarifications on the laying of fibre optic cables within Lagos and other parts of the country, explaining that “the laying of additional fibre optic cables is to strengthen the existing 3G and 4G infrastructure to provide robust and pervasive telecoms infrastructure to improve network performance.”

NCC noted that 5G is a fifth generation of mobile technology which is an improvement of today’s 4G technology with enhanced capabilities.

The commission added that 5G technology provides the platform for new and emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data to improve the way we live and work