The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has said that poor power supply and inadequate fibre infrastructure would impede the deployment of 5G Network in Nigeria.
Engr. Bako Wakil, Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC disclosed this recently at a special session, held by the Commission, on the benefits and challenges of deploying the 5G Network, at the Social Media Week Lagos, SMW Lagos, held at Landmark Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos,
Engr, Wakil, said that the country will face two major challenges in deploying commercial 5G network in the country, stating that inadequate power supply and insufficient fibre infrastructure as the two major impediments.
According to him, “power infrastructure is a major challenge we will witness in the deployment of 5G across the country.
“As it stands today all the base-stations in the country are running on 24 hours generator and this is not good for the deployment of 5G because it latency is very small.
“Also fibre infrastructure in the country is not enough to deploy 5G in the country. We do not have fibre capacity across the country.
“These two major infrastructures are crucial impediments in the deployment of 5G in the country.”
Wakil, also stated that, the 5G Network is one that will require more, in terms of electricity than the 4G that, we are currently running, stating that, the Commission does not have any powers to work on improving the power supply in the country, as it was not within its purview.
He noted that while the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is coordinating the NCC, the National Frequency Management Council, and the National Broadband Plan to address broadband infrastructure deficits, the poor state of electricity supply in the country needs to be addressed by other sectors of the economy because that matter is outside the purview of the NCC.
Still on broadband infrastructure, Wakil explained that the NCC, having adopted the Open Access Model for enhanced broadband infrastructure deployment, has licensed six out of seven proposed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to deploy fibre access in all the 774 local government areas (LGAs) of Nigeria.
Speaking about NCC’s preparedness for commercial 5G, Uzoekwe said there is enough spectrum bands that have been identified and can be used for the deployment of 5G. “Six spectrum bands have been identified, so, I can say we have enough spectrum bands.
“All we need now is to finalise the re-planing and re-farming, so that those occupying certain spectra can be relocated to other bands,” Uzoekwe said.