NCC insists, ‘No 5G licenses issued yet’ - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has once again insisted that despite false rumours making a round over the Fifth Generation (5G) deployment in the country, that there is no 5G licenses issued till date, reports ITREALMS.

Reacting, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, insisted there is no ongoing deployment of 5Gin any part of the country.

Danbatta also was quoted by the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Dr. Henry Nkemadu in press statement available to ITREALMS, as saying that their attention have been drawn to a mischievous statement making the rounds on social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites that the Nigerian Telecoms industry is going to switch on 5G in Lagos this Sunday 10th, Monday 11th or Tuesday 12th May 2020.

“The statement from the faceless individuals or groups cannot be further from the truth. The Commission has unequivocally stated that there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment. The NCC back in November 2019 approved trial test for 5G for a period of three (3) months and that the trial has been concluded and installation decommissioned,” he said.

Danbatta explained that the trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the 5G network might present, stressing that “Relevant stakeholders including members of the security agencies were invited to participate during the trial.”

The EVC assured that NCC will continue to maintain its policy of technology neutrality and will continue to encourage service providers to deploy the best technology that will meet the needs of the society in a secured and friendly manner.
ITREALMS recalled that at the wake of COVID19 pandemic surfacing in the country, that NCC had provided clarifications of Frequently Asked Questions on 5G in view of the recent developments in which misleading materials with no proven evidence are being circulated to link Coronovirus or COVID-19 with 5G technology and therefore refuted the claims that there will be switching on of 5G in Lagos in its entirety.

Also, NCC 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 is to strengthen the existing 3G and 4G infrastructure to provide robust and pervasive telecoms infrastructure to improve network performance.

“5G is a fifth generation of mobile technology which is an improvement of today's 4G technology with enhanced capabilities. 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. ‘’NCC has not issued any licence for 5G in Nigeria and therefore the mobile network operators (MNOS) cannot switch on such technology. NCC is technology neutral as such we don't license technology but assigns spectrum to operators for deployment of any service when allocated by National Frequency Management Council (NFMC),” Danbatta said.

Danbatta further enjoined Nigerians to get accurate information from NCC rather than relying on information emanating on social media by some individuals out of ignorance to misinform the populace. 

Chuks Egbune/DoP

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