Can You Hear Me Now? Nigeria's NCC Approves Trialing 5G
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) remains my best performing government agency in Nigeria [do not attack me, this is neither a political statement nor a scientific one. Just take it as my opinion]. So, whenever NCC says something, I pay attention. Today, we are learning that NCC has "approved the spectrum for the trial of 5G services in the country." Personally, I do not think Nigeria has a 5G problem yet considering the degrading quality of 3G networks in the nation. But hey, NCC has better insights. More so - it is just a “trial” which can be seen as a research.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Umar Danbatta, disclosed this at the opening of the maiden International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Digital African Week on Tuesday in Abuja.
Mr Danbatta said that Nigeria had exceeded the 30 per cent penetration target set by the National Broadband Plan of 2013 to 2018 and stood at 33.31 per cent at the end of June 2019.
By and large, NCC should focus on making sure telcos improve reliability and quality before they begin borrowing to build 5G networks that could be a poison pill.
It does appear as if the telcos are now regulating themselves, to have a quality voice call for as little as ten straight minutes without fluctuations, you must be very lucky then. Even in my room, the signal strength for both voice and data differs, from corner to corner, it can even vanish without notice...
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When GSM was introduced here in 2001, some used to climb trees and tall buildings, just to have improved signal strength; and in 2019, telcos are still forcing me to 'position well', just to make or receive calls? They have reached 4G, while the speed of what I see most times is equivalent to 2G.
Our telcos are busy 'innovating' and propping their market shares, and yet they failed to innovate on the most basic of them all: quality voice call and stable internet services.
It's as if anything that enters Nigeria is bewitched. Don't be surprised that our own 5G (when it finally arrives) won't live up to those beautiful things we have been promised about it. Our case is always different, and NCC is giving itself As...
