Verizon leaped to the 5G stardom with the announcement that it is expanding 5G ‘nationwide’ wireless with short-range millimeter-wave. The service covers 55 American cities and boasts to be the fastest in the world.

Existing 5G networks in US cities are reportedly slower than 4G, dampening the interest of potential users and putting China and some other countries ahead of the US in 5G roll out.

The news of Verizon’s roll out of the 5G nationwide network comes in the week when Apple launched the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G enabled phones. Verizon’s CEO Hans Vestberg boasted of the speed at the Apple event: “You can be assured there’s no faster 5G on Earth,” he said.

Tests conducted by PCmag shows that Verizon’s UWB 5g system – also known as high-band or nationwide 5G has shown spectacular speeds of sometimes over 2Gbps, though with little coverage. And the test it conducted in 26 cities back in the summer showed 4 percent of Verizon’s UWB 5G due to its short range.

According to the test, Verizon’s nationwide 5G will have the opposite problem. By sharing existing 4G channels with 4G devices, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), provides 5G at 4G speeds.

Focusing on the speeding and performance of 5G UWB, Verizon has been expanding coverage in the past few months.

“Every single market that we’ve deployed has had a material increased in the number of nodes that are providing 5G UWB service,” said Adam Koeppe, Verizon’s SVP of network planning.

As many cities in the US get coverage, Verizon reflects on the struggles of 2019 that kept the speed of its 5G network slow. Koeppe said Verizon has been able to cover more places due to the availability of equipment that weren’t there.

“In 2019, one of the limitations we had in our deployment was the amount of equipment we could get from our infrastructure providers. We don’t have the limitation, so we’re able to launch significantly more nodes from the start,” he said.

Although there is significant improvement in coverage, challenges remain. Each UWB node still has the same problems there have been for the past year, though-great speed, but range of only about 800 feet and an inability to easily penetrate buildings and walls. Koeppe explained that Verizon is doing field work with repeaters and in-building panels to cover hard-to-get areas, and the first repeaters will start extending coverage later this year, but in-building panels will come in early 2021.

However, PCmag noted that speed in some cities is only as fast as 4G. The “nationwide” network covers 200 million people, and Verizon has been able to turn parts of its 850MHz (band n5) spectrum over to 5G when 4G customers aren’t using it.

The test indicated that users shouldn’t expect much better speeds than on 4G, because both the 4G and 5G networks share the same broad lanes. For 5G to shine, it needs big broad lanes to itself.

Another challenge comes with C-band, a swathe of midband spectrum that FCC will auction off in December. PCmag noted also that there is a question for future proofing, whether any of the newly launched 5G phones will support the C-band. Most of Verizon’s network is using 4G channels for 5G, which means, the network performance will basically be 4G.

As the Nigerian government was forced to cave in to the demands of the people to end SARS, following days of protests that have garnered unprecedented momentum around the world, the Nigerian Police is putting measures in place to replace the disbanded SARS.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, announced on Tuesday that the police have set up a Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team, in place SARS – a development that is not going down well with Nigerians.

The move came after the police head ordered all members of the dissolved SARS to report to the police headquarters in Abuja, for psychological evaluation and retraining before they are reintegrated into mainstream police service.

“The Inspector-general of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has, today, 13th October, 2020, in accordance with Section 18 (10) of the Police Act 2020, ordered all personnel of the defunct SARS to report at the force Headquarters, Abuja for debriefing, psychological and medical examination.

“The officers are expected to undergo this process as a prelude to further training and reorientation before being redeployed into mainstream policing duties.

“Meanwhile, the IGP has set up a new Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team that will fill the gaps arising from the dissolution of the defunct SARS,” the statement from the Police said.

Unfortunately, the development added embers to the furnace of the ongoing protests, as it is seen as a ‘from frying pan to fire’ degeneration of the situation.

“Problem has changed name.” That’s how former Nigerian Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili responded to IGP’s attempt to set up a SWAT team that will take the place of SARS. Consequently, Nigerians have changed their protest hashtag from #EndSARS to #EndSWAT.

SWAT is a unit of the United States’ police that is trained to respond only to high crime situations, and to disperse rioters with brute force. The move by the IGP to institute such a unit in about 24 hours after SARS was disbanded stoked the concern of Nigerians that the government is taking them for granted.

Nigerians have demanded the dissolution of every tactical unit that has been roaming the streets and are complicit in the atrocities that SARS was spearheading, and they don’t want any of them replaced.

The stand stems from the belief that the Nigerian Police lacks the sincerity to maintain such a unit of the police that will not turn out far worse than the defunct. A belief proved true by police’s actions during the protests.

While the protests were going on, the police were found in the same acts the people were protesting against. Killing, maiming, extorting and illegal detention of protesters; all upholding the belief that the newly formed SWAT, which is believed to be made up of officers with the same corrupt mentality, will end up far worse.

“While the IGP was informing us that there would be sweeping police reforms.. the young man Ayorinde was being held secretly.. and a police officer stepped on his head and crushed his teeth. @MBuhari sir.. how do you expect us to take you say serious!!” Rapper MI Abag tweeted.

This is just one of the many stories intensifying the zeal of the people to stay in the streets. A protester was arrested in Surulere Lagos, and framed with the death of a police officer who caught a friendly fire. Although it was evident that the crowd had no weapon, it took the intervention of leaders of the National Assembly, the Lagos State Governor and many other prominent Nigerians to free the protesters from police detention.

Amnesty International reported that Nigerian Police hierarchy is culpable in the atrocities of the tactical squads, particularly SARS. The report said the units have become a cartel for revenue generation for the high-ranks in the police who have offered protection to low-ranks officers perpetrating the crimes.

One of the protestors who was arrested in Lagos said she overheard the policemen while in cell, boasting that the protest will do nothing more than forcing the police to rename SARS. A bold statement emanating from the trajectory set by the government’s response to calls for police reform in the past. It has created the impression that any attempt to reform SARS will become business as usual.

“SARS, FSARS, SWAT: whatever name you give it, a leopard cannot change its spots,” wrote Mathew Page, ex officer of the US State Department.

Nigeria already has SWAT

In 2013, the Commandant General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Dr. Ade Abolurin, set up a SWAT unit for the Corps aimed at curtailing extraordinary cases of crimes in Nigeria. The NSCDC SWAT is barely heard of since then, mainly because some units are already doing the same work.

The reform Nigerians are asking for entails overhauling the entire police structure to reflect service-driven orientation, not setting up a new unit filled with the same cancerous elements in the police, and giving it a new name.