MTN Launches 5G Trial Ahead Of 2020 Target
MTN Nigeria has inaugurated the trial of fifth generation technology ahead of the 2020 target the Nigerian Communications Commission set for the roll-out of the technology in the country.
The company, in technical partnership with the ICT infrastructure provider, Huawei, and others, demonstrated the application of the technology in virtual reality, gaming, 3D holographic communication and video conferencing at a test lab designed to show proof-of-concept in Abuja on Monday.
The telco collaborated with the Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy, NCC and Huawei (Abuja), ZTE (Calabar) and Ericsson (Lagos) to showcase the capabilities of 5G and its potential to drive economic growth and social inclusion.
The 5G tests will run for three months on trial spectrum allocated to the MTN by the NCC.
Speaking shortly after taking a tour of exhibition booths, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, underlined the potential of 5G for sustainable growth.
“I believe as long as we are able to handle the potential challenges, the deployment of 5G is very critical to our economy because of so many advantages of 5G, the issue of latency, speed and many more,” he said.
Pantami stated that on the instruction of the President Muhammadu Buhari, he had signed a draft Executive Order declaring telecommunications infrastructure ‘Critical National Infrastructure’.
The draft order had been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation for review, he added.
The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman, noted that partnership with the NCC, the ministry, Huawei and others made the trial possible.
The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, noted that the 5G trials showed that it was possible to achieve enhanced mobile broadband, machine to machine applications, ultra-low latency applications in ways that would impact the lives of Nigerians.
In his welcome address, Chairman, MTN Nigeria, Mr Ernest Ndukwe, recalled that Nigeria which lagged behind when other African countries had deployed 2G technology in 2001 had now taken the lead with the demonstration of 5G technology.
He said that concerns regarding the security of the technology would be addressed before the commercialisation.
