The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has described claims and misinformation trending on all social media platforms that 5G networks are the cause of the outbreak of Covid-19 as baseless and untrue.
All social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsAapp, Twitter, LinkedIn and a host of others, are suggesting that the 5G technology is causative factor of Coronavirus pandemic also known as COVID-19.
The president of the association Olusola Teniola, in a statement issued today, told telecom consumers, other stakeholders and the entire Nigerians, without any equivocation that the purported claims that 5G is responsible for COVID-19 is baseless and it should be discountenanced .
He the claims have not been substantiated, by any conclusive empirical evidence, by either the World Health Organisation or other health research institutions.
Teniola also noted that there has been no issuance of 5G licence to any of “our members to build and deploy 5G network in Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
“However, what has happened recently was just a trial of the 5G network by one of our members which was well supervised by the telecoms regulator”, he added.
According to him Nigeria’s networks are made up of 2G, 3G and 4G, adding that in 2014, the World Health Organisation stated clearly that there is not yet any conclusive scientific evidence to the effect that there are adverse health effects caused by telecommunications infrastructures to human with respect to exposure to the non-ionizing radiation emitted by telecoms base stations.
“Association of all telecommunications companies in Nigeria, would like to state unequivocally that it would not be part of the deployment of any technology in-country that would put the health of any Nigerian at risk, as we believe the health of end-users of any technological advancement comes as a priority in he deployment consideration of such technology by our members to provide services to Nigerians”, Teniola said. S
