In Lagos and Abuja, MTN’s leading telecommunications provider has switched on its highly anticipated 5G network this morning at one hundred and ninety sites across the country, with some users reporting speeds of up to 1.4 g per second.
The launch of the service coincides with the date the National Communications Commission, NCC, set aside for the official launch of the service.
By October, it is expected that the MTN 5G service will be operating at 500-600 sites across the country.
On Wednesday morning, only a handful of handsets could access the 5G service because of the modification and software updates required to enable such handsets to engage the 5G service in Nigeria.
And for the subscribers using Apple or Samsung handsets, there will likely be some wait for the phone manufacturers to deliver on the update.
While Samsung might be able to make the modification required for Nigerian subscribers to use the 5G service in about a month to six weeks, iPhone users might have to wait till October.
While MTN has launched the Fifth-Generation (5G) service, Mafab Communications – another winner of the 5G license, has been given a five-month extension for the rollout of the service in Nigeria.
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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) handed the August 24 (Wednesday) roll-out date to MTN and Mafab Communications after both emerged winners of the 3.5GHz spectrum licence last December and had subsequently coughed out about $550 million as early as February into Federal Government’s coffer.
In December 2021, after 11 rounds of bidding that lasted eight hours, Mafab and MTN Nigeria emerged as the two successful winners of the 3.5gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction for deploying 5G technology in Nigeria. The Commission further confirmed that the two companies fully paid $273.6 million each for the 5G spectrum licence in February 2022.
According to Mafab, “in line with the conditions of the 5G licence, the licenses were expected to commence the rollout of 5G services effective from August 24, 2022. However, Mafab has been issued a five-month extension following delays in receiving its UASL and Numbering plan, which did not happen until the end of July.
“We are fully committed to bringing the benefits of 5G services to Nigerians and deploying a network that will drive economic development with increased broadband capabilities nationwide. I have no doubt that the service will help deliver improvements in the fields of education, business, smart cities and entertainment,” said Chairman Mafab Communications Limited, Dr Mushabu Bashir.
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With the launch by MTN today, Nigeria has joined South Africa and Kenya as countries that have formally launched the 5G network on the continent. South Africa began its 5G network journey through MTN and Vodacom in March.
On the other hand, Kenya started the deployment through Safaricom in April.
Already, the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) informed that around 70 countries had 5G networks as of June 2022, up from just 38 in mid-2020. It stated that approximately 15 more had deployed 5G mobile technology in part.