5G internet in the offing, expect an announcement in 2024 – NCA boss Joe Anokye
Ghana is expected to roll out 5G wireless internet services soon, Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Joe Anokye, has revealed.
“Yes, 5G is coming and will certainly be here, but the onus is also on the institution itself to beef up your local internet Wifi services, making sure that the halls and various places where people meet there is a fibre optic connection to the central point and your 5G in only to help. You can’t have 5G when even your local network has an issue,” the telecommunications expert disclosed.
5G is the fifth-generation technology standard for cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, and is the successor to 4G technology that provides connectivity to most current mobile phones.
Only a handful of African countries have deployed the technology, and Ghana is expected to join this league to reap the economic and digital transformation of the innovation.
South Africa was the first country in Africa to roll out 5G and has since been joined by a handful of others, including Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Togo.
Mr Anokye, a former senior telecommunications consultant at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States, was the speaker at the 12th Dr Robert Patrick Baffour Memorial lecture series at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
He delivered a three-part lecture series on the theme: KNUST After 70: A New Age for a Renewed Focus in an Era of Disruptive Technologies.
Answering questions on Ghana’s plans to upgrade further from the 4G available in the country, Mr Anokye said:
“Plans are far underway to get to 5G. We have made sure that the spectrum required for 5G is available. There are a few policy decisions that have to be made as to exactly how that spectrum will be made available. It is very complicated because of the way the market is. You don’t want to proceed, and only one entity has the capability to acquire the 5G. So a lot of discussions are ongoing, but I definitely know that by the year 2024, an official announcement will come through as to 5G,” he explained further.
However, he highlighted that building a robust telecommunication setup will be vital to having efficient internet services.
“You should also understand it is not whether 3G or 4G or 5G but the infrastructure that you have. Do you have the infrastructure as far as the last mile is concerned? That is also one of the keys.
“Currently, all internet goes through the submarine cable landing. Based on the numbers we went through, it is about 5.9 terabytes in total, but they are very complicated. Every now and then, a submarine cable will go down, and when they go down, it takes time because you have to send a ship in. So, one of the things the NCA is doing is to license additional submarine providers,” he added.
Reports suggest that 5G could boost African economies by as much as US$26bn in the next seven years, with Swedish telecommunication giant Ericsson estimating over 150m 5G subscriptions in Africa by 2028.