The Nigerian senate is not cool with the deployment of the 5th Generation network, at least for now; hence it , on Wednesday, urged the executive arm of government to first study its deployment across the world.
Preceding the development was the consideration and adoption of the report of its joint committee on Communications, Science and Technology, Information and Communications Technology, Cyber Crime as well as Primary Healthcare and Communicable Diseases on the ‘Status of 5G Network in Nigeria and its Impact on Nigerian Citizens’.
On May 5, 2020, following a motion by Senator Uche Ekwunife, the red chamber had mandated the joint committee to investigate ‘The Status of 5G Network in Nigeria and its Technological Impact on Nigerian Citizens’.
Though the senate could not establish any link between 5G and the Coronavirus Disease, it went ahead to the Mobile Network Operators in the country to halt their plans of deploying 5G in the next six months.
Financial Street gathered that the suspension is to help the country check whether there is any connection between 5G network and public health.
While presenting the report, the joint committee Chairman, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, said the overwhelming aggregate opinion from majority of stakeholders was that it was appropriate for Nigeria to join the comity of nations that engaged in the deployment of 5G.
She said the joint panel was convinced that having witnessed what 3G and 4G achieved had achieved, the technological impact of 5G would be such that would revolutionise Nigerians’ way of life from education to agriculture, security to entertainment and governance in general.
According to the committee, there is no 5G deployment in Nigeria at the moment. and no licence has been issued to any MNO on commercial basis.
It urged the relevant government agencies to prepare the ground by putting the necessary infrastructure and technology in place, for its eventual deployment.
The committee urged the Nigerian Communications Commission, in collaboration with MNOs, federal ministries of health, science and technology, environment, and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, among others, to locally to be clear about 5G and public health.
