By Na’ankwat Dariem, Abuja.
Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) and Chief Executive Officer of NCC
The Nigerian Communications Commission says the trial of the fifth generation mobile network, 5G, has shown that there is no health hazard associated with the use of the technology.
The Commission in a draft consultation document on Deployment of Fifth Generation Mobile Technology in Nigeria published on Monday stated that the trial was conducted in six cities – Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Kano and Calabar.
With the assurance that there are no health challenges related to 5G, NCC said the phase one was planned to commence in 2021 while the phase two deployment, which will rely on new spectrum allocations, was planned to commence in 2022.
The expectation is that by 2025, the technology would have covered major urban areas in the country.
The regulatory body said the tests were conducted in accordance with the 1998 International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines for general public exposure to varying electromagnetic fields, which were in force at the time of the trials.
It said the results of EMF radiation indicated that the highest radiation at 26 GHz millimeter wave at 5m away from source was 4.3 per cent and at 30m from the source was 0.14 per cent.
It added that the highest radiation at 3.5 GHz at 5m away from the source was 11.4 per cent and at 30m away from the source was 1.9 per cent of ICNIRP specification of 61 v/m for frequency range 2-300 GHz.
“These results are far below the ICNIRP specification for protection of members of the public in the Guidelines and therefore suggest that no public health hazards are expected from the use of 5G in Nigeria,” the NCC said.
“The current race to deploy 5G networks is targeted at providing citizens with the benefits of the technology while at the same time enabling the activation of the digital economy,” it said.
The Commission said ‘5G network deployment will rely on the availability of sufficient radio spectrum at the low, medium and high-frequency bands to provide for the different use cases and applications’.
“While some of these frequencies will be newly assigned for 5G network deployment, others will have to be re-farmed from other existing communication services,” it added.
The Regulatory body explained that 24.25-27.5 GHz, 37-43.5 GHz, 45.5-47 GHz, 47.2-48.2 GHz, and 66-71 GHz were globally recognised spectrum bands for 5G deployment.
It said the bands were available and not assigned to operators at the moment except the 26 GHz band, where an operator currently had an assignment of two slots of 2 X 28 MHz each in the old plan.
The NCC promised that the operator would be vacated and the band licensed based on the new TDD plan.
The commission, in the 62-page document, revealed that already there are about 92 commercial launches of 5G networks in 38 countries across the world spread across all regions as at July 2020. The countries, including Netherlands, US.A, UK, China, Canada, Romania, South Africa, Qatar and Australia, have all unveiled commercial 5G technology deployment.
According to the NCC, there is a clear ambition to ensure that the Digital Economy Policy of the Nigerian Government is accomplished, and one of the instruments for the realization of the dream is availability of a robust information and communication network in the country.
The commission said having identified the unique benefits and the role 5G can play in accomplishing the objectives of the digital economy, it needed to outline a plan that will facilitate the deployment of the technology in Nigeria.
The Telecoms regulator explained that the 5G communication technology is the next evolution of the mobile communications technology, which is capable of creating new opportunities for growth in the economy by enabling new and dynamic business models and opening up new opportunities and markets. It also provides tremendous improvement in interpersonal communications with several innovations and services.
NCC, which assured that the Federal Government will provide an enabling environment for 5G deployment, however, said the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will determine their own deployment strategies subject to alignment with the approved polices and other regulatory instruments in force.
NCC said 5G technology, which has been projected would enable $12.3 trillion of global economic output in 2035, will initiate several new changes in mobile connectivity with an enormous capacity to boost productivity and grow the economy.
