By Favour Unukaso
ABOUT two years after its commercial launch in Nigeria, the Fifth-Generation (5G) network has hit 2.1 per cent penetration.
Subscription statistics released on Monday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) confirmed this. As of quarter one, precisely March, when NCC last released industry data, 5G penetration stood at 1.24 per cent.
The data showed that in April, 5G usage climbed to 1.31 per cent; May, 1.73 per cent; June, 1.81 per cent; July, 1.85 per cent; August, 2.12 per cent and 2.19 per cent as of end of last quarter.
According to NCC data and due to the NIN-SIM exercise, telecommunications subscription dropped from 219.3 million in March to 154.9 million, which was a 30 per cent drop.
It could be deduced that the 2.19 per cent means that 3, 372, 600 telecoms subscribers of the 154.9 million are currently on 5G network in Nigeria.
As of now, three operators with the 5G licenses, that is MTN, Mafab Communications and Airtel are expanding the service across the country. While the impact of MTN and Airtel appeared visible, currently in about 30 cities of the country, not much can be said of Mafab for now.
Further analysis of the NCC data showed that 4G has overtaken 2G as the dominant technology in the country with 44.96 per cent; 2G is second with 43.53 per cent and 3G, 9.32 per cent.
MEANWHILE, in terms of data consumption, Nigerians as of last quarter had consumed 850,249.09 terabytes. As of March, data consumption was 753,388.77 terabytes. It moved to 766,708.12 terabytes in April; 771,993.56 terabytes in May; 798,583.81 terabytes in June; 829,584.47 terabytes in July; 853,954.05 terabytes in August and 850,249.09 terabytes in September.