Here’s what to expect from MTN’s 5G technology

Just some days ago, MTN conducted its 5G network live demo – in partnership with Ericsson – at events that took place in Abuja, Calabar and Lagos. This came after an announcement made in July 2018 by the telecoms giant to officially roll out 5G in Nigeria before next year.

While the 5G initiation approval by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was still pending, MTN went on to showcase the live demo of the technology, saying the display was an attempt to inform Nigerians about the product and to exhibit the proficiencies and potentials of 5G in driving economic growth and social inclusion.

“5G offers tremendous benefits in terms of speed, latency (less delays), efficiency and security. This pilot offers a unique opportunity for us to explore use-cases and applications in Nigeria, and we are excited about its potential for our country and our company”, stated Mohammed Rufai, Chief Technical officer, MTN Nigeria.

What does MTN 5G have to offer?

MTN says its 5G technology is at least 100 times faster than 4G and promises faster download and upload times. During the trial event held in Lagos, the application of this technology was demonstrated in use cases such as virtual reality, video conferencing, gaming, and ‘5G-connected healthcare’.

With 4G LTE, I downloaded a 2-hour film on Netflix (Bird Box) in 1 minute & 40 seconds.

But with 5G, one can download the same thing in under 11 seconds.

What’s the first thing you’ll download if you have 5G? pic.twitter.com/Wnu2u5Ru50
— Fisayo Fosudo (@Fosudo) November 24, 2019

I tried out MTNs 5G today alongside @Fosudo and @MissTechyNG . The speed was like Ferrari and a Formula 1 car mixed together 😭. You can download 2Gb in 10 seconds #MTN5GDemo #ExperienceTheFuture pic.twitter.com/O9pTgTBcI5
— Tayo Aina (@tayoainafilms) November 25, 2019

A major difference between 5G and 4G, is latency. On 5G, data is sent and received more than 100 times faster than 4G. Here's @MTNNG demonstrating a real-life use case with an AI goalkeeper. #ExperienceTheFuture. pic.twitter.com/ewRHRfQ7vx
— Techpoint Africa (@Techpointdotng) November 25, 2019

The company described the speed as the highest achieved on any mobile network in Africa.

“5G will make our life better, drive incremental capacity and open up new businesses. MTN as a company is constantly making efforts to break barriers by democratising voice and data connectivity in order to improve subscriber experience, and has invested over NGN 800 Bn in infrastructure in Nigeria,” said MTN Nigeria’s CEO, Ferdi Moolman, during last year’s announcement.

While all these seem exciting, the prominent question remains, “Is Africa ready for 5G?”