The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved the spectrum for the trial of 5G services in the country.
Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this at the opening of the maiden International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Digital African Week on Tuesday in Abuja.
Danbatta said this has become possible as Nigeria exceeded the 30 per cent penetration target set by the National Broadband Plan of 2013 to 2018 currently standing at 33.31 per cent at the end of June 2019.
He said that the Commission had developed framework to facilitate the deployment of broadband infrastructure across the country through the licensing of Infrastructure Companies (INFRACO).
Danbatta said the framework would also deploy metro, inter-city fiber and broadband Point of Access with a minimum capacity of IOG bps across the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria.
The NCC boss said the Commission had since taken steps to involve members of the academia as strategic stakeholders in activities targeted at the developing the telecom sector.
He stated that the Research and Development Department of NCC was collaborating with Universities and other institutions of higher learning to develop the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, assuring that itwould continue to drive and implement policies, projects and programs aimed at facilitating digital revolution and digital inclusion in Nigeria.
”We have put in place, Broadband implementation and Monitoring Committee (BIMC), to monitor full implementation of the INFRACO projects within the four year implementation plan.
“With the development of Smart Cities KPIs by the ITU, it is imperative to have pervasive and ubiquitous broadband infrastructure across all our towns and Cities to achieve the objectives of making them Smart.
“We will continue to work hard to ensure that all citizens of Nigeria have access to affordable broadband connection in respective of their circumstances or location,’’ he said.
In his remarks, Mr Bako Wakil, Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, NCC, said that the programme was to bring the African perspective to the standardisation of the new technologies to fit and support African nations.
Wakil said that the African nations could also contribute in the standardisation process of the ITU and also come up with those proposal and ideas that best suit the African nation.
Mrs Helen Nakiguli, a representative of Uganda, who spoke at the event, explained that the group was responsible for evaluating ICT effects on the climate change and study design methodology for ICT environmental effects generally.
Nakiguli noted that the interest was to engage the African region to be part of the standards development that will help the African region and the study group.
“This particular event is really critical for Africa to be part of the contribution to development of standards that will help the region generally.
“Standardisation of emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IOT), smart cities and communities, e-waste and circular economy and electromagnetic radiation are very important to the African continent,” she said.
Meanwhile, doctors in a Beijing hospital said on Tuesday that they successfully conducted a remote robotic surgery on a patient more than 136 km away using 5G wireless technology.
According to China Telecom’s Tianjin branch, the orthopedic surgery was conducted on a 36-year-old female patient in north China’s Tianjin Municipality lasting about four hours.
The surgery, enabled by a 5G Internet connection, was conducted at Tianjin First Central Hospital and transmitted via a live feed to an expert team at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital.
This was as an orthopedic expert of the Beijing hospital had already conducted the preoperative planning before a surgery robot operated according to the orders.