Nigeria is expected to begin auctioning spectrum for 5G in the fourth quarter of 2021, as the continent’s largest economy accelerates plans to establish the next-generation network. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and NigcomSat, a communications satellite company, signed an agreement in May to allow 5G services in the country to use the latter’s C-band frequency spectrum. The spectrum is being used for the majority of commercial 5G network deployments around the world.
In the first quarter of next year, the auctioning process will progress to the assignment stage, during which selected companies will be able to compete for their preferred airwave placements. Nigeria’s current move toward a national rollout of the next-generation network comes as the country lags behind Kenya and South Africa in Africa’s 5G race, both of which have already deployed commercial 5G networks.
As of February 2020, 24 operators in 18 African countries — including Lesotho, Gabon, and Egypt – were testing 5G across the continent. In addition, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), eight operators had installed 5G in pre-commercial or commercial networks.
MTN was the first to test 5G networks in Nigeria in 2019. With the help of Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson, the network operator successfully conducted spectrum tests in its offices across the country. However, there have been health concerns about 5G and conspiracy claims relating it to Covid-19, which the Nigerian government has debunked.
In comparison to 4G, regulators in the West African nation have endorsed the commercial implementation of 5G, which is significantly faster than current networks and supports many more devices in a given region. The new network is projected to provide critical infrastructure for various African industries, such as smart transportation, medicine, manufacturing, and the internet of things, among others.
However, given the low penetration of past network generations, there are questions about African governments’ ability to achieve mass adoption of 5G.
