Lagos gets first chance to smarten up cities and services
Ericsson and MTN Nigeria have announced they are about to turn on Nigeria’s first 5G network, followed by a gradual roll out of a private network across Africa’s most populous country. The first phase of the launch covers select areas of the former capital Lagos. Ericsson said its 5G Radio Access Network and NSA Packet cCore will expedite the ‘digitisation’ of the West African behemoth’s education, health and manufacturing sectors and empower everyone from consumers to enterprises.
Ericsson has promised that 5G will awaken the sleeping giants of AR, VR, AI and IoT. Ericsson claimed millions of people in Nigeria, population 217 million, will want Artificial Intelligence, Smart cities and Immersive Communication over Augmented and Virtual reality. According to MTN’s web site, this will be taking place beyond Lagos and into other ‘5G Locations’, namely Abuja, Awka, Benin City, Ibadan, Ife, Kano, Lagos, Maidugari, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Warri.
New 5G services could underpin the invention of new sustainable development initiatives, said Ericsson. In fields such as agriculture, energy, financial inclusion and security, the shackles of institution and other barriers to growth will be rent asunder. “5G will revolutionise the way we live and communicate across industries,” said Mohammed Rufai, MTN Nigeria’s CTO. “The speed of 5G and its lack of latency makes our virtual interactions more real. At MTN, we will continue to pursue the rollout of 5G technology to revolutionise internet access across the continent.”
It’s not just about speed said Hossam Kandeel, Ericsson’s VP for the Middle East and Africa, “5G helps people do more with their devices, unlocking a whole new world of possibilities for society.” In future MTN Nigeria’s 5G network will be software-defined with a combination of AI techniques creating an autonomous organisation primed for both maximum systems efficiency and customer experience while it creates new business models for the IoT and enterprise, said Ericsson.