Abolaji Adebayo 
Sensing the slow pace of Fifth Generation (5G) technology in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, industry experts have urged telecommunications companies to collaborate rather than compete in the deployment of the network. It has been predicted by the GSMA that there will be 41 million 5G subscribers in sub- Saharan Africa by 2025 with Nigeria contributing large percentage. By now, telecoms subscribers in Nigeria are expected to have been enjoying the benefit of 5G network. However, less than 0.05 per cent of the total population of the country currently use the network. Since it was launched officially by the MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, the network is restricted to Lagos State and only available in MTN router. When launching its commercial 5G network in Lagos in September, MTN had promised to launch the network in six other cities including Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Owerri, and Maiduguri.
The Lagos 5G commercial launch came on the heels of its 5G pilot launch in August as mandated by the telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Meanwhile, industry experts said for the acceleration of the network, there is need to encourage collaboration and cooperation among telcos, noting that intense competition in African markets, plus the revenue governments hope to realise from selling spectrum licences, dampened any hope for this type of collaboration. “In Nigeria for example, the government is planning to auction four more licences even though only one of the two licences it had issued previously is operational.
“Among telcos, there is a lot of hope and hype in the potential of 5G technology for Africa, but realising this potential will demand more collaboration than competi-tion. It will also need strong policymaking and implementation that will help prevent oligopolies from forming and ensure that consumer protections do not only exist on paper. “Most importantly, this transformation will rely in part on better- managed economies that foster prosperity and greater purchasing power. If people are not living better lives, farming with better tools, or making modern machines, they may never need connectivity beyond voice and SMS calls,” GSM Association has reported. Meanwhile, the association has advised that there is no need to hurry, stating that “a time lag before large-scale 5G deployment could have broad benefits for Africa because it would allow the technology to mature and be fully tested in other markets. It would also allow economies of scale to be realised in 5G equipment and devices, potentially lowering costs for operators and consumers.”
The GSMA report acknowledges that one downside to the phased roll-out of 5G services is that it may limit the opportunities for local operators and other ecosystem players to realise economies of scale from 5G deployment. The report recommended that telcos shelved some of their ambition and work collaboratively to align their 5G strategies through network sharing. “Markets with sufficient scale can better influence the global trajectory of 5G development and are also able to achieve low unit costs of network rollout,” counsels GSMA. A technology expert, Emmanuel Okafo, in a chat with New Telegraph, noted that the acceleration of 5G in Nigeria would be slower due to inability of many Nigerians to afford 5G devices especially the 5G smartphones. According to him, some affordability barriers are simply a result of policy mismatches where governments impose significant tariffs on smartphones. “It is a standard problem throughout Africa where governments’ stated digital inclusion goals clash with the need to fill budget gaps and pervasive rent-seeking in practice,” he stated. He noted that some smartphone producers had noticed this, hence the introduction of ‘easy buy,’ whereby people get the device and pay in bits. He urged the government and the regulatory body to encourage collaboration among the mobile network operators in the deployment of 5G network, while making the policy that will make it affordable for the people.
