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The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta has said Nigeria needs at least seventy thousand to eighty thousand telecommunication base stations to actualize the dream of joining the club of countries working toward making Internet of Things (IoT) a reality by leveraging 4G and 5G networks.
Prof Danbatta, who made this known at a sitting of the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee investigating the health implications of mounting telecommunications masts close to building, yesterday in Abuja, said the country currently has less than 50,000 base stations.
“3G, 4G going to 5G networks are going to usher this country into smart applications, the Internet of Things or the smart world and cities we are talking about.
“And of course because of the additional burden on infrastructure, the present capacity of telecom infrastructure is grossly inadequate to cater for these additional platforms or services we talk about.
“Therefore we will need from 70,000 to 80,000 base transceiver masts to be able to provide the effective capacity that is needed to deploy 4G going to 5G,” Danbatta said while responding to questions from members of the ad hoc committee.
He later called on other approving agencies at all levels of government in the country to synergize with NCC with a view to achieving the target, noting that the United Kingdom (UK), with a population of almost one third of Nigeria already has close to 60,000 masts.