Telecom companies are gradually expanding 5G support to new cities as they are becoming 5G-ready
The Chief Executive Officer and President, MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, has said the fifth generation (5G) technology is vital in ensuring Africa’s economic development and actualising its full potential.
He spoke during a chat with MTN media innovation programme (MIP) fellows during a courtesy visit at the MTN Nigeria headquarters in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Recently, MTN kicked off the 5G rollout in seven Nigerian cities including Lagos and Abuja.
Mupita said: “It is important that we emphasise how using 5G for business-to-business applications and margination would be the catalyst for Africa’s growth.
“I think we will find in five years, maybe even sooner, that on the African continent, 5G is what would enable economies to accelerate their industrial development across the educational, agriculture, mining, or transportation industries.
“There has been quite a bit of investment into national 5G coverage where citizens and businesses of Nigeria are leading.
“If we get to 50per cent population coverage by 2025, Nigeria will lead many nation-states in the developed markets through the extent of national coverage. 5G technology will be a critical infrastructure in the country, enabling Nigeria to meet its promise and capabilities.”
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Also speaking at the meeting, CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, assured that iPhone and Samsung users in the country would get a 5G signal on their phones within a couple of weeks.
“The truth is that Samsung and Apple, which are the two leading manufacturers, have a rigorous testing process before they release the software, unlike 2G, 3G and 4G, there was nothing like that.
“But for 5G, the two manufacturers are going to release software that would allow MTN Nigeria users, specifically, to begin to see the 5G signal on their mobile phones.
He further said that, “We expect this to happen in the next four to six weeks. You will begin to see the 5G signals on Samsung and Apple mobile devices, and you can test the speed to confirm what we have been saying.
“Let me also caution you, if you do a speed test, it consumes about 1.2GB of data, this is just to inform people: it is not MTN that is taking the data, but the application”.
