In August 2022, Nigeria finally joined the party. After nearly three years of preparation from the federal government, the country officially turned on its fifth-generation (5G) mobile services, bringing high-speed mobile internet to 190 sites – most of them concentrated around the tech hubs of Lagos and Abuja. Immediately, people in those areas were reporting internet speeds greater than 1.4 Gbps. That’s eye-wateringly fast, especially when compared to Nigeria’s national broadband average of just 8.68 Mbps, which saw the country ranked a tardy 143rd in the world in a 2021 M-Lab survey.

With that 5G switch-on, Nigeria joined South Africa and Kenya as the three African nations to launch 5G services, with Ghana and Egypt expected to follow soon.

‘Switch-on’ is a misleading word, though. Deploying a 5G network is not as simple as pushing a button. It requires access to spectrum – the raw capacity that wireless-network providers use to communicate between your device and their towers. Spectrum, in technical terms, refers to the invisible radio frequencies – typically between 1 GHz and 6 GHz for data-hungry 5G – over which wireless signals travel.

Nigeria’s 5G roll-out, for example, came after MTN and Mafab Communications won the 3.5 GHz 5G spectrum licence at an auction conducted in December 2021 by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Under the terms of the licence grant, both telcos were required to launch their 5G services by August 2022. MTN made the deadline; Mafab asked for a five-month extension.

The urgency to make spectrum available and to deploy 5G is grounded in the promise that the technology offers. Higher speeds. Lower latency. Less time wasted. More data available. As MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola said at the country’s 5G launch event, ‘every major technological evolution changes the way we live, the way we connect; it changes what is possible. GSM took phone calls on the road; 2G added texting to our experience and created a whole new language; 3G brought the internet to our phones; and 4G made video widely available on mobiles. 5G will change everything. It will allow us to connect, create, collaborate and compete in ways we cannot imagine yet. Today we will show you a glimpse of the many possibilities 5G has in store. What’s most important is what you and every Nigerian can create with it’.

There’s a similar sentiment in South Africa, where the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, recently published a draft next-generation spectrum policy for public comment, proposing the trading of radio-frequency spectrum (which has been prohibited in the country). At the same time, she has revealed plans to shut off South Africa’s 2G and 3G networks by mid-2025, in a bid to create space for 5G and WiFi.

The minister directed the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and the Competition Commission to develop rules for a secondary market for the spectrum.

‘The regulator must put in place a regulatory framework that clarifies spectrum trading rules between licensees and promote approaches that prohibit monopolisation of spectrum, dominance and anti-competitive behaviours in the market,’ the policy document states. The document also aims to prevent spectrum hoarding by subjecting any spectrum that goes unused for longer than 24 months to a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ principle.

That policy document came after the department, through Icasa, began auctioning off available spectrum in March 2022. The six bidders – Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain and Liquid Intelligent Technologies – all obtained spectrum licences, with Rain and Telkom getting access to frequencies below 1 GHz for the first time. Access to that range is significant, as the frequencies can go through walls and penetrate underground – making it vital for improving data services in rural areas, mines and indoors. They had waited more than 15 years for those licences, as the process was slowed by an endless parade of legislative delays. The auction brought more than ZAR14 billion into the national fiscus and, according to Natashia Barnabas, industrial relations manager at Workforce Staffing, it will open opportunities for employment and nurture talent.

‘Having last allocated spectrum more than a decade ago, the conclusion of the auction of high-demand spectrum for mobile telecommunications is a significant milestone in our national reform agenda,’ she says. ‘This will drive growth in the economy, modern-ising and transforming key network industries such as broadcasting, energy, telecommunications, transport and water provision.’

Barnabas adds that the telecoms and broadcasting industries won’t be the only ones to benefit from this spectrum allocation. ‘Many ancillary industries will be positively impacted. This includes news and publishing directly, as well as the performing arts and live events industries.

‘These in turn influence a greater scope of industries, including video games, advertising and printing industries. This will result in an increased demand for skills to fuel growing industries, everything from journalists to dancers, agents to photographers, special-effects technicians to cinematographers, make-up artists and all the necessary logistics, technical and support crews.’

Todd Ashton, vice-president and head of South and East Africa at Ericsson Middle East and Africa, agrees. In a recent online post, he describes how cellular networks bring ‘unprecedented optimisation value’ to port and mining sites through operational efficiencies that lower costs and environmental impact, and boost economic value. ‘By fusing cellular technology with Industry 4.0 technologies, these industries can create agility, advance operations and use real-time data to increase operational efficiency,’ he says.

‘The ports of Livorno and Rotterdam, for instance, which we have supported in enabling IoT, have reported that optimising vessel berthing led to a 20% average cost reduction per year, which was equal to roughly EUR2.5 million.’

Yet those are just two out of many industries that could benefit from digital technologies. ‘With consumer and personal communication-centric commercial 5G networks already live around the globe, the next wave of 5G expansion will allow businesses of all types to reap the benefits of enhanced mobility, flexibility, reliability, and security, taking IoT and industrial applications to never-before-seen levels,’ according to Ashton.

He points to South Africa’s ‘strong digital transformation momentum’, saying that the country’s efforts to accelerate spectrum auctions and new spectrum allocations will ‘no doubt maximise the economic benefit of cellular technology […] and ensure the nation’s cellular networks exuberate maximum performance and global competitiveness’.

In other words, spectrum availability isn’t just about more data and quicker downloads. In South Africa – as in Nigeria, Kenya and across Africa – it’s about empowering business and growing the economy.

By Mark van Dijk
Images: Gallo/Getty Images