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PowerCom denounces 5G rumours

PowerCom denounces 5G rumours

Telecommunication infrastructure builder, PowerCom said this week any link between COVID-19 and 5G technology and its alleged roll-out on their towers is completely unfounded.

These rumours, which have been focused particularly on the 19 towers that PowerCom was in the process of construction, are part of a global conspiracy which spilled over to Namibia.

The Chief Executive of PowerCom, Alisa Amupolo said there is no basis for those comments, with the construction of 19 new towers this year merely coincidental to the outbreak, moreover no corroborating evidence has ever been supplied to link 5G and COVID-19.

“We have not received application for 5G technologies on our towers, though we can not rule out such applications in future when Namibian operators are ready to roll out 5G and it has been firmly established that there is no connection between the COVID-19 outbreak and 5G technology,” she added.

Amupolo explained that during their on-boarding process of all operators on the towers, they received approval by the regulator which issues Spectrum and also conduct Typo approval and it has been established that 5G is not the cause of COVID-19.

“Spreading of inaccurate information can become very dangerous, as it can lead to people vandalising or physically damaging our infrastructure and many businesses are currently dependent on the communications infrastructure we provide, especially during the national lock-down where there is a shift to remote working and e-learning,” Amupolo added.

Amupolo highlighted that they are currently only operating in the passive infrastructure space, offering physical infrastructure and not active infrastructure. “At present, we do not host any 5G equipment on our towers because there is no 5G yet available in Namibia and we are assessing how to future proof our infrastructure to allow tower clients to roll-out 5G services in the imminent future,” she said.

She made reference to other operators including the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), the Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) and Telecom Namibia who have also criticised the circulation of the conspiracy which is causing unnecessary confusion and panic at a critical time where uptime, reliability and agility of communication infrastructure is critical in the fight against the pandemic.


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.