Dr. Henry Nkemadu, Director Public Affairs, (NCC) made the clarification in a statement following rumours linking 5G with COVID-19.
“5G is an advancement of today’s 4G technology designed to transform the world positively.
“Secondly, there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment.
The NCC back in November 2019 approved a trial test for 5G for a period of three months.
He said the trial has been concluded and installation decommissioned.
“The trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the 5G network might present.
“Relevant stakeholders including members of the security agencies were invited to participate during the trial.
“The NCC will continue to maintain its policy of technology neutrality and will continue to encourage service providers to deploy the best technology that will meet the needs of the society in a secure and friendly manner”, Nkemadu said..
Nkemadu said 5G is the fifth generation of mobile technology, which is an improvement of today’s 4G technology.
It provides the platform for new and emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data to improve on living and work.
“There is no 5G network in Nigeria at the moment. What we had was a trial test for 3 months which has since been concluded. No exact time frame but when conditions are right and all doubts are cleared.
“We have spectrum, particularly the millimetre wave spectrum from 24GHz and above are available. We have not given out 5G spectrum to operators. It will be auctioned at the appropriate time,” he said.
Nkemadu, assured that 5G technology would transform the world by connecting everything with everybody and create millions of jobs in the country.
He called on Nigerians not to ignore negative narratives but to rely on information from world standards-making bodies such as World Health Organisation (WHO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and industry experts for advice, when in doubt.
He, however, said that there was radiation emission limits set by the International Commission for Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) which the radiation was considered safe for humans.
“The NCC has been regularly conducting measurements of radiation emissions from Base stations across the country and they are all well below the set limits.
“5G is not the same as Fibre cable. The fibre cable is a terrestrial technology for broadband that existed for decades while 5G is a new mobile technology for enhanced quality of service as explained in Q1 above.
“There are other sources of radiation, which include television stations, radio broadcasts stations, wifi and so on. They all belong to the class of radiation considered to be safe for humans when operated below the set limits.
“5G is not owned by anybody but collection of technologies, Standards and processes agreed at the international level by Standards making bodies.
Nkemadu said that the amount of voice and data usage had increased by huge amounts as a result of the lockdown and there was the need to expand the network to provide optimum quality of service to users sitting at home.
He added that Telecom is also critical for information dissemination during the lockdown.
NAN