In December 2022, Airtel secured 100 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band
Airtel Nigeria launched its 5G services in the African nation, according to local press reports.
The 5G offering will be available in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in an initial phase, with plans to expand to other Nigerian cities in the near future.
The telco said that those customers can use a 5G-compatible router to access fixed services, or a 5G-ready handset or tablet to access mobile services.
In December 2022, Airtel secured 100 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, as it had been the sole bidder in the auction carried out by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The following month, the African telco secured a further 2×10 megahertz in the 2.6 GHz band.
Airtel is reportedly planning to use the frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band to deploy its 5G services, while the spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band will be utilized to boost the telco’s network capacity.
Additionally, Airtel Nigeria recently renewed its 2×10 megahertz 2.1 GHz spectrum license. Earlier this year, Airtel Nigeria also introduced Voice Over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) services in the country.
Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal said that Airtel will invest $700 million annually in Nigeria in the next three to four years amid the roll out of 5G in the country. Bharti Enterprises is the parent company of Airtel.
Rival operators MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications had already launched commercial 5G services in the country.
In May, MTN Nigeria said it had expanded its 5G network to 13 cities since its commercial launch in September last year. By that time, the telco had already deployed 700 5G sites in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Owerri, Ibadan, Maiduguri, Abeokuta, Ife, Warri, Enugu, Ife and Ifo. MTN Nigeria aimed to expand 5G coverage to 10% of the population by the end of this year and to 40% by 2025.
Meanwhile, Mafab Communications launched its 5G offering in January this year. The telco initially launched the service in Abuja and Lagos, with plans to expand to Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna in the future.
Mafab Communications was founded in 2020 and was issued a license by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to start operating in the mobile space to compete with to MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9 Mobile.
