5G In Nigeria: The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The 5G Network

News broke out during the lockdown that the 5G technology  was responsible for the outbreak of the pandemic: Covid-19. However that was  proclaimed a false claim by the World Health Organization (W.H.O). Since that time there has been several conspiracy theories to discredit the use of the 5G technology, but with all indications, the 5G network has come to stay.

 However before the invention of 5G technology we've had 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G .

One might be wondering what the meaning of G in this means.

The G there stands for generation.

 1G was launched on December 1 1979 by Nippon telegraph and telephone entity of Japan.It was only called G at that time .It had several disadvantages and due to it's with analog nature, there was a need for an alternative.

 2G was also launched in 1991 by Finland which led to the abandonment of 1G of NTT due to its improved standards. It had a maximum speed of 50kbps( kilobyte per second) and allows the operations of calls, SMS and MMS. 

3G also came into limelight as the demand for mobile and internet service skyrocketed. 3G network can reach up to 32 mb per second when stationary.

 Obviously there was also a need for 4G network, which is currently the standard and it supports more advanced activities with the speed of up to 1000 mbps.

 Here we are today, with the 5G network. 

5G is mainly a telecommunication technology, one of the major things to note about 5G it is high capacity and lower latency when compared to 4G.( Latency is the duration between when information is sent from a device until it is used by a receiver). It's with much accelerated internet speed. 

However 5G is still very much new and there are speculations of when it will fully come into use in Nigeria.

 There are some well developed countries who have started the full use of 5G networks, countries such as US, UK, Japan etc and the likes.

As stated by some analysts, 5G will account for 20% of global connections by 2025 with companies such as, Samsung Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia and Intel leading the charge for its mainstream adoption worldwide .

In 2019 Nigeria became the first west African country to initiate the 5G network trial , when the biggest Telecom provider MTN ran spectrum test across several locations .

Finally, in March 2022 NCC announced the plans to start the deployment of 5G technology from State capitals and it will be gradually extended to all other areas across the states . A move which many considers as a great feat in leading the course for technological advancement in Africa.

 But what are the advantages and disadvantages that will come with the advent of 5G technology in Nigeria?

The advantages of the 5G network. 

1.High speed : it is faster on the devices when compared to 4G and 4G LTE, it has 20 gbps and it is estimated that consumers who use 5G saves nearly 23 hours per day while downloading.

 2. Enhances innovation: 5G helps companies to connect with a whole range of different devices which includes drones and sensors. It gives ways for industries to improve on their productivity and bring out new inventions.

3. Less congestion : One of the disadvantages of the 4G network is that it often get congested, but with better speed and more bandwidth on the 5G network, the problem of congestion has been largely solved.

 

4. Better capacity: It gives companies the opportunity to switch between cellular and Wi-Fi wireless networks. It has the capacity which is 100 times than the 4G network

5. Low latency : It enables easy access to web pages on internet without hassles

6. Due to the advent of the 5G network, there will be a significant boost in military capacities. Military technology and services such as autonomous vehicles intelligence and surveillance will be greatly improved by the speed of the 5G network.

7. The deployment of 5G technologies will consequently promote the National Digital Economy for a Digital Nigeria that will improve the way Nigerians live and work.

Disadvantages of the 5G network

1. Weakens batteries devices: Devices that make use of the 5G network will result in a huge battery drain which reduces the lifespan and efficiency of batteries to a large extent.

2. It has limited global coverage: As at now 5G is only available in some specific locations all across Nigeria, it has not yet reached the remote areas and may take longer years to get the coverage to those kind of places

3. It's expensive: The expenses for setting up 5G tower stations are much when compared to other networks used before.

4. The owners of 5G network can use it to gather intelligence and have an authorised access to private government and citizens data.

5. Lacks early encryption in the connection process: This is an opportunity for hackers to plan their attacks with more precision. it uses software that increases the chance of vulnerable attacks

It's evident that the advantages of the 5G network clearly outweighs the disadvantages of the 5G network . We can see that the 5G network has come to stay in Nigeria, in the years to come, we hope to see a rapid expansion of the 5G network in the country for better technological advancements.