China on Tuesday projected that the number of 5G users would exceed 560 million by 2023.
According to a recent guideline on the country’s telecom industry issued by 10 state agencies, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the 5G network is expected to be used by over 40 percent of personal mobile phone users.
This is even as the guideline indicated that the country would also create new consumption modes with 5G network and expand penetration rate to above 35 percent among major industrial companies.
The document also projected that by 2023, every 10,000 people in China would enjoy more than 18 5G base stations as the government steps up efforts to improve 5G coverage.
According to Wikipedia, “in telecommunications, 5G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, and is the planned successor to the 4G networks which provide connectivity to most current cellphones”
While users in Europe, America and Asia continents are already exploring the communication benefits of the technology to the fullest, users in Nigeria and other African countries remain very low due to some rumoured health related risks associated with the deployment.
Despite the misgivings about the fifth generation technology standard, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) had on 5 May this year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will facilitate the release of contiguous bandwidth in one of the most suitable frequency spectrum bands for early deployment of fifth Generation (5G) Network services in Nigeria.
The MoU signing was the high point of discussions between the two organisations on how to relocate the NG-1R satellite of NigComSat to the standard C-band 300MHz (3.9GHz – 4.2GHz) portion of the band, which is considered more suitable in terms of satellite service offering because of the advantage of cheaper terminal devices for end users.
Accordingly, such relocation will leave the non-standard C-band 400MHz (3.5GHz – 3.9GHz) portion of the band for 5G use while the cost of relocating the NG-1R is expected to be offset from the proceeds of the auction of the 5G spectrum.
Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, expressed his appreciation to the leadership of NigComSat “for demonstrating that the interest of our dear country is paramount to our organisational or personal interest”
