FG To Deploy 5G In January 2022

Federal Government of Nigeria said the Five Generation (5G) network will be deployed in the country in January 2022.

Gatekeepers News reports that Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami on Thursday, said the 5G would aid surveillance against vandalism of public assets.

Pantami made this known in Maiduguri during a Town Hall Meeting organised to address vandalism of power and telecommunications infrastructure.

The event which was organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture was attended by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno and his Deputy, Usman Kadafur, and other stakeholders.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed led other ministers who were panellists at the town hall meeting.

Pantami, who was represented by the Commissioner for Technical Services, Nigeria Communication Commission, Ubale Maska said the 5G network was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council for increased connectivity.

Maska while stating that the technology would boost surveillance against criminal elements vandalising public infrastructure across the country, advised that other measures must be put in place to arrest them and bring them to book.

The Minister disclosed that the presence of over 50,000 telecommunication sites across the country, made it difficult to man manually except through the deployment of modern technology.

According to him, there were about 16,000 reported outages by mobile network operators – MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9Mobile – from January 2021 to July 2021.

He stated that the outages were due to fibre cuts, access denial, and theft leading to service disruption in the affected areas

Pantami added that the protection of the critical infrastructural facility was key to Nigeria’s security, economic vitality, public health, and safety.

The Minister lamented the situation where telecoms installations which were destroyed in the attacks by terrorists, has not been replaced as a result of the lingering insecurity and tensions in parts of the North East.

The Minister while proposing a way forward, recommended continuous stakeholders buying-in and synergy among security forces.

Pantami also enjoined the National Assembly to hasten the passage of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill for onward submission to the President for assent.