The latest statistics from the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed that 60.3 per cent of
subscribers in the country are still on 2G as of August 2023.
The telecom industry statistics
further show that 10 per cent of the over 220 million subscriptions were on 3G,
a higher generation of network launched in Nigeria in 2007.
3G ushered in the use of video
calls and had significantly higher data transfer, operating at a speed of up to
2mbs, and increased bandwidth compared to the 2G network.
According to the Commission, subscriptions for 4G, which the operators started rolling out in 2016 still stood at 28 per cent as of August, while the latest technology launched in 2022 accounted for 0.83 per cent of subscriptions in the country.
While the operators said they have
achieved over 80 per cent of 4G coverage, the low pace of migration by
subscribers is attributed to device constraints.
Recently on the back of the
company’s acquisition of a 3G license, the Chief Technical Officer of MTN
Nigeria, Mohammed Rufai, also pointed out the fact that many Nigerians are
still on 2G and 3G. “So, while we are investing in new technology, we must also
maintain the other technologies that are needed by the people that use them and
the people that don’t yet have the devices for the newer technologies.
This is the reason why we are
still investing in and expanding on the old technologies, and also because the
spectrum, the license allocated by NCC, and the network resources that are used
for 3G can also be used on other technologies in the future, so the investment
is still usable for the higher technologies when the devices are ready.”
Globally, the expansion of 5G has
pushed internet service providers like AT&T and T-Mobile to shut down 3G
service earlier in 2022, and most recently, Verizon and Vodafone have notified
customers that they intend to cut off 3G-enabled devices from their networks
from December 2022 and December 2023 respectively.
3G is the third generation of
wireless mobile telecommunications technology which was first rolled out
commercially in mid-2001 and was an upgrade over the 2G, 2.5G, GPRS, and 2.75G
networks.
At the moment, it has been
succeeded by the launch of 4G, 5G, and most recently, a test run of 6G in China
which is a super upgrade to the service.
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