2.7m Nigerians access 5G services as 50 operators plan non- terrestrial deployment

SOME 2.7 million Nigerians are currently on the radar of telecommunications operators offering the Fifth Generation ( 5G) network in the country.

Latest subscription statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC) showed that as of the first quarter of 2023, 5G penetration hit 1.24 per cent.

According to the regulator, the total number of active mobile connections in the country stood at 219 million as of March. This means that of the 219 million active connections, the 1.24 per cent 5G connections indicate that about 2.7 million Nigerians have subscribed to the latest technology.

As of December 2023, 5G penetration in the country stood at 1.04 per cent. This increased to 1.11 per cent in January 2024 and 1.18 per cent in February.

Recall that almost two years into the launch of the technology in Nigeria, MTN, Airtel and Mafab Communications currently offer the service.

MTN puts 5G penetration on its network at 12.4 per cent, up by 1.2 percentage point with spread across the country, and total data traffic on the network hitting 6.4 per cent.

Airtel, last year, rolled out the service in four states, including Lagos, Abuja, Rivers and Ogun, with plans to extend across the federation this year, while Mafab claimed a presence in Lagos and Abuja.

The NCC said most telephone connections in Nigeria were still on 2G as of March this year. The industry data showed that 2G accounted for 56.9 per cent of all connections in Nigeria at the end of the month.

NCC’S statistics showed that 9.04 per cent of the 219 million subscriptions were on 3G, a higher generation of network launched in Nigeria in 2007.

The commission observed that subscriptions for 4G, which the operators started rolling out in 2016, remained at 32.74 per cent as of March.