How feasible is 5G deployment in Nigerian market?
By Felicia Nwosu
Nigeria’s mobile technology landscape has witnessed major innovations over the years even as the disruptive 5G technology sweeps across the globe. However, with the promise of providing the fastest network connectivity across all sectors, there seems to be a growing demand to upgrade telecommunications infrastructure urgently.
Recently, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) granted licenses to two network providers, MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications Limited to roll out 5G services, with effect from August 24, 2022.
The 5G spectrum Reserve Price was pegged at N75bn by NCC, which led to an auction for a 5G license being conducted by the Commission in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. The bidding contest was held among three strong forces, which include MTN Nigeria, Airtel and a new Mafab Communications to provide and operate local and international carrier services. With the use of Ascending Clock Auction software, after the 11th round, MTN and Mafab Communications emerged winners, grabbing the license at a bid price of $273.6 million each, as against the initial $197.4 million reserve price.
Having scaled through this stage, both winners had to enter into another stage of bidding called the Assignment Stage, to determine which of the winners would get the first lot and second lot from the two available lots respectively. It was at this stage that MTN paid additional $15, 900,000 to get lot one of the spectrums, while Mafab paid extra $11, 120, 000 to get lot two.
Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC who announced the winners, said provisional licenses would be given to Mafab Communications Limited and MTN Nigeria as winners of the two lots in the 3.5GHz spectrum license. According to NCC, the issuance of the final letters of award of the 5G spectrum had happened in line with the 5G auction’s Information Memorandum (IM). Danbatta explained that the two winners entered into another stage of auction called the Assignment Stage, in order to determine the operator that would take a particular lot out of the two lots that were auctioned
With Nigeria’s preparations to commence the rollout of 5G services with effect from August 24, 2022, users and industry watchers wonder how feasible this will be. They argued that Nigeria lacks the infrastructural capability.
Femi Adelusi, President, Media Independent Practitioners of Nigeria (MIPAN), and Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of BrandEye/Mediaplus while reacting to the roll out date, said with the speed of technological penetration across the globe, Nigeria lags behind on the adoption of 5G. He noted that network providers should have leveraged the successes of previous generations of mobile networks such as 2G, 3G and 4G to proffer solutions to some of the shortcomings of 4G technologies. He added that, despite its late adoption, its rolling off may not be feasible as the process is confronted with some infrastructural deficits.
“There is a school of thought that believes that in certain areas, 5G is already in implementation. It is a level we need to move to because as long as you want a faster, better digitally-driven economy, you need to embrace what is next and 5G is next. Now are we ready? Certainly not. I don’t think we have got the infrastructure in place yet to make that happen,” Adelusi said.
Otis Ojeikhoa, Managing Director/CEO of Brands Optimal, undoubtedly argued that Nigeria is not yet ready for such technological transition. He opined that hitches such as access to spectrum, affordability of sites in both urban and rural areas, access to power, low speed data among others may act as inhibitors to the deployment of 5G in Nigeria.
“What have we done with the 4G? The infrastructure that we have really doesn’t support this technology that will fly around. My phone is 4G, but if you see the speed is worse than 3G or even 2G.The infrastructure that carries this technology is not robust enough to give us the opportunity to enjoy what this technology can truly render,” he said.
With these overreaching barriers, many of the consumers are still wondering how these will be tackled to pave the way for effective deployment of 5G technology and especially in fast-tracking the actualization plan for the national broadband between 2020 and 2025 as well as enhancing other policies that will translate Nigeria into a full digital economy.
Efforts to reach MTN and NCC to get their views on how prepared they are for the deployment of 5G in the Nigerian telecom market hit the brick wall as all attempts made through both voice calls and messages to the Senior Manager, External Relations, MTN Nigeria, and NCC Director of public affairs proved abortive.
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