The Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN), an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the federal government to work with telecommunication operators to ensure that subscription after the deployment of the 5G remains affordable to the people.
Speaking with The Eagle Online, the General Secretary of the union, Okonu Abdullahi, said the directive of the Federal Executive Council for the deployment of 5G is long overdue, and that the Federal Executive Council must be supported on this directive.
“5G is the latest generation of mobile network that the world is embracing for better and improved performance of communications and connectivity.
“While we support the deployment of 5G in Nigeria we urge the federal government to work with the operators to ensure smooth roll out.
“They should assist in giving waiver, or better still, tax holidays to the operators so that it will reduce the cost of deployment of the facilities needed since these facilities will be imported.”
He noted that to enjoy the services for 5G, consumers would have to get new phones, and at the moment 5G-compatible phones are yet to be in high supply and are very expensive.
Operators and the government must have to look into affordability of these phones to majority of Nigerians, he stressed.
“Government should also work with the operators to ensure that subscription after the deployment remains affordable to the people. This is very important as it is feared that subscription rate will increase after the deployment of 5G,” he noted.
Abdullahi noted further that 5G wireless technology will deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra-low latency (gap time, or transmission time for a packet of data) more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users.
“The deployment of 5G will automatically create massive jobs for teeming unemployed Nigerians. Beyond creation of jobs for our people, it will also ensure those already working will keep their jobs, most especially in the Telecommunications industry.
“Nigerians should not see 5G as what it is not by propounding unsubstantiated theories around it. 5G, as mentioned earlier is a better version of 4G (which brought an era of mobile broadband) while 4G was a better version of 3G(which brought mobile data) while 3G was a better version of 2G (which was a better of 2G (which introduced a digital voice) while 2G was a better version of 1G (which delivered analog voice). It is as simple as that.”