Angola Joins A Growing List Of African Nations By Issuing First 5G Licenses

With African countries latching on the fifth-generation technology (5G) trend, Central African country, Angola has officially keyed in to technology deployment.

According to Daily Expansao, The telecom sector regulator of Africa’s seventh-largest country, Instituto Angolano das Comunicações (INACOM), could issue the first 5G license by the end of the year.

A Presidential order last month approved the award of the 3.3-3.7 GHz frequency band for developing 5G technology, with the paper’s sources saying a process for awarding the spectrum rights might be announced soon.

Angola’’s INACOM while affirming its 5G affirmation, said in a release:

 “The slow advance of the Angolan industry may take advantage of the impulse of the new 5G technology to solve some technological barriers that prevent it from taking off.”

It added that “5G can give a boost to countries like ours, with a weak technological infrastructure and a bland industrial park based on manual processes, above all. With this opportunity, they say, we will leapfrog, leaving behind expensive technology deployments that 5G has already made obsolete. We gain time and advance faster.”

The frequency is also aimed at the terrestrial mobile telephony service to allow the electronic communications market become more attractive to private investment.

The Expansao report said INACOM may announce this year the award of the first license for the use of this new technology, aimed at proffering new opportunities for companies and better services for individuals.

In the Expansao report, private Angolan mobile phone company, Unitel, confirmed that the joint-stock company was ready to begin operating with the 5G technology. Unitel’s director of strategic planning, Eduardo Vieira corroborated this stand when he stated recently that “The conditions are in place to operate with 5G. “We will soon have news,” he guaranteed.”

London-based mobile telecommunications company and a newcomer in Angola’s cellular market, Africell, had confirmed that it would begin operation without 5G but would only call with its chip in 2022. According to TeleGeography, the company plans to introduce its commercial services soon with ‘5G-ready’ infrastructure, upgradeable from 4G via software updates.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian authorities had recently auctioned the 5G spectrum auction for the West African country, with MTN and Mafab emerging winners of the auction.

The two companies emerged winners of the contested 3.5 GHz spectrum auction for 5G deployment which raked in a total of $547.2 million for the federal government to be paid $273.6 million each.

With the 5G technology seeming to have a steady incursion in the African continent, it is expected Africa catches up with the rest of the world in internet productivity.