NCC Assures Of 5G Deployment As Investments In 4G Drops 7%

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has said, Investments in Fourth Generation (4G) in Nigeria and Africa dropped by seven per cent in 2020.

This is even as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has again assured on the country’s readiness to deploy 5G technologies.

The drop in 4G technologies in Africa, according to ITU, was as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged and still ravaging the world. It noted that the pandemic has further created huge gap in bridging the globe’s digital divide.

The ITU, in its latest report, tagged: “The Economic Impact of Broadband and Digitisation through the COVID-19 Pandemic,” noted that the decline was in spite of the rising need for more broadband connectivity.

ITU, which is the United Nations arm in charge of the global telecommunications, disclosed that the pandemic also drove 30 per cent increase in Internet traffic worldwide with changes in time of day and geographic distribution patterns.

“Telecommunication/ICT capital investment in developed countries accelerated (from 0.5 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2010 and 2019 to 1.8 per cent between 2019, and 2020 in member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to accommodate the increase in traffic, combined with the deployment of 5G and optical fibre infrastructure,” ITU stated in the report.

It added, however, that investments declined by 7.0 per cent between 2019 and 2020 in Latin America, 2.9 per cent in Asia and the Pacific, 3.4 per cent in the Arab States, and 7.0 per cent in Africa, thereby, indicating a widening of the digital divide.

ITU observed that the decline of capital expenditures (CAPEX) per capita in developing countries has resulted in a decreasing growth rate of 4G coverage and lagging deployment of 5G. It disclosed that 5G is currently reaching 3.34 per cent of the population in Latin America, and 0 per cent of the population in Africa.

But the NCC said Nigeria’s readiness for 5G is now very high. NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said this shortly after the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, revealed Federal Government’s position on the deployment of 5G networks in Nigeria.

 “On the 5G, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami has spoken about the Federal Government’s position to deploy as soon as possible.