London, Nov. 26, 2019 (AltAfrica)-MTN Nigeria has inaugurated the trial of fifth generation technology, 5G network ahead of the 2020 target the Nigerian Communications Commission set for the roll-out of the technology in the country.

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The company, in technical partnership with the ICT infrastructure provider, Huawei, and others, demonstrated the application of the technology in virtual reality, gaming, 3D holographic communication and video conferencing at a test lab designed to show proof-of-concept in Abuja on Monday.

-President Muhammadu Buhari endorsed the trial of 5G technology at the MTN first live demo of 5G network on Monday in Abuja.

The telco collaborated with the Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy, NCC and Huawei (Abuja), ZTE (Calabar) and Ericsson (Lagos) to showcase the capabilities of 5G and its potential to drive economic growth and social inclusion.

The 5G tests will run for three months on trial spectrum allocated to the MTN by the NCC.

Speaking shortly after taking a tour of exhibition booths, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, who represemted president Buhari underlined the potential of 5G for sustainable growth.

“I believe as long as we are able to handle the potential challenges, the deployment of 5G is very critical to our economy because of so many advantages of 5G, the issue of latency, speed and many more,” he said.

Pantami stated that on the instruction of the President Muhammadu Buhari, he had signed a draft Executive Order declaring telecommunications infrastructure ‘Critical National Infrastructure’.

He expressed delight to be part of the historic moment, stressing that migration from 4G to 5G would be a revolution in the industry.

“We are working day in day out to make sure that the environment is conducive for people to do their businesses.

“This administration is passionate about developing Nigeria’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) Sector which contributes more than Oil and Gas to GDP,” Buhari said.

Minister of Communication, Dr Ali Pantami (4th L); Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria Communication Plc, Ferdinand Moolman (4th R); Executive Vice Chairman, Nigeria Communication Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta (3rd L); Chairman, Board of Directors, MTN, Ernest Ndukwe (2nd L); former Super Eagle Captain, Joseph Yobo (2nd R) and other dignitaries, during the MTN trial of 5G network in Abuja on Monday

Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), had told the global community that African continent held the ace, adding that 5G is the next frontier of investment.

Danbatta expressed optimism that 5G would provide a very veritable and convincing investment for investors.

Former Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Ernest Ndukwe, who is also a board member of MTN Nigeria, expressed delight that Nigeria was one of the countries championing 5G trial on the African continent.

Ndukwe said that the new technology is at least, 100 times faster than 4G, adding that 5G also provides faster data transfer speed and lower latency, compared to 4G.

“Additionally, 5G boasts of improved reliability as well as better support for more devices.

“5G is a transformational change from 4G with the potential to provide 20 times faster data speeds.

“It carries a massive amount of data for a large number of simultaneous users.

“5G will support business innovative ambitions, create new markets, transform supply chain management and create smarter and more efficient manufacturing sector.

“5G is extremely fast and supports data transfer rates of up to 20Gbits/S. 5G will allow stream, download and upload of huge quantities of data at a much faster rate.

“During a comparison test on both 4G and 5G networks, it took just 15.78 seconds to download a 2.3 GB video on the 5G network and the same file on 4G took exactly 5 minutes, 3.84 seconds.”

“This according to the telco operator will enable the company to provide better data services at a more affordable cost to its subscribers.

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