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MTN Reveals New Plans for its 5G Coverage of South Africa

MTN South Africa has revealed that it is ramping up the rollout of 5G coverage to bring the seamless, fast and cutting-edge experience of the 5th generation network to more South Africans. With over 1,000 active 5G sites across the country currently, MTN aims to have at least 25% of the population covered by the end of 2022.  “We want to have 5G connectivity across almost every part of SA. Our aim is to bring the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to more people in an efficient and cost-effective way. This means expanding our 5G coverage every day, with a strong focus on investment into main metros, peri-urban areas, and larger townships initially,” says Charles Molapisi, MTN SA’s CEO. With speeds 10 times faster than 4G and the potential to be 100 times faster, 5G is changi...

The 5 African Countries That Have Launched 5G Services So Far

Many governments across Africa have been incredibly optimistic about technological advancements being the key to pull Africans from the developing space right into the developed. One of these emerging technologies that have a lot of weight and emphasis pulled behind it is 5G. Certain analysts predict that 5G could add an additional $2.2-trillion to Africa’s economy by 2034. However countries across the continent are struggling to launch the new technology due to either infrastructure challenges, adoption issues, the expensive nature of the technology and the devices needed to utilise it and even safety concerns around 5G. Many African countries are currently testing 5G and a few have successfully launched the technology in a commercial nature. These are the countries currently testing or a...

All the Details About Ericsson’s New Edge Exposure Server Offering

Ericsson, the Swedish multinational telecom, has announced the launch of its new Edge Exposure Server, which can be used to enable new enterprise and consumer services through simple and enriched APIs for edge applications. According to Ericsson, 5G and edge computing are opening a world of new revenue opportunities across manufacturing, transport, gaming and mission-critical services. Combined they enable new services requiring low latency, high bandwidth and capabilities such as device processing and data offload. Edge computing consists of five technology areas including edge infrastructure, -user plane, -routing, -orchestration and exposure. Exposure makes network capabilities, such as location and quality of service, and data easily available for the ecosystem to innovate on to improv...

Safaricom Announces Launch Date for Commercial 5G Network

Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom. Image sourced from TechWeez Safaricom has announced that it will increase its 5G sites by 200 by the end of 2021, and launch a commercialised version of its 5G services in 2022. Kenya’s leading telco launched 5G technology for the first time in the country in March, starting with 15 sites. Now the telco says it wants to take the supremely high-speed internet to additional towns. Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO said Wednesday that the company would use up to 200 sites for testing the upgraded network as it seeks to capitalise on the country’s nascent Internet use which is slowly growing. Safaricom’s 5G service is also hoped to be a central key of its attempts to further expand its data business in order to counter the slow growth in voice calls revenue. “This yea...

5 Reasons Why 5G Makes a Real Difference

Over the last 36 months, 5G has rapidly gained mindshare in society as a vital technology. But not all stakeholders in industries adjacent to the telecom industry understand what makes 5G different from its predecessors. In this post, we describe a set of strategic choices made for previous mobile generations of which we made a single choice. 5G makes it possible to embrace both options, thereby unlocking larger opportunities earlier in the deployment cycle. Here are 5 Reasons Why 5G Makes a Real Difference: 5G is for Both Consumer and Business Users The introduction of 4G was consumer-led, with infrastructure and device technology development centred around smartphones for consumers. Businesses adopted consumer technology through a more visible, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement. Inte...

Orange Launches 5G Pilot Test in Mali

Sourced from MSNBC. Mobile operator Orange Mali has announced the launch of a 5G pilot in the country’s capital of Bamako. Orange is inviting customers to be the first to test the new network. A launch event on 7 July was attended by government officials including Harouna Mamadou Toureh, the Minister of Communication, Digital Economy and Modernisation of the Administration. Developing Telecoms reports that this new pilot phase has been authorised by the Malian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Information and Communication Technologies, and Posts (AMRTP). Premier pilote 5G au Mali, sur le réseau @Orange_Mali. Une infrastructure qui va révolutionner les usages du numérique au #Mali. Merci Monsieur le Ministre pour votre engagement en faveur du numérique : #M4Dev #eEducation, #eSante ...

Sub-Saharan Africa to Reach 70 Million 5G Subscriptions in Next 5 Years

Ericsson projects via a new report that 5G mobile subscriptions will exceed 580 million by the end of 2021, driven by an estimated one million new 5G mobile subscriptions every day. “Fastest Adopted Mobile Generation” The forecast, which features in the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, confirms the expectation that 5G will become the fastest adopted mobile generation. 5G is expected to surpass a billion subscriptions two years ahead of the 4G LTE timeline for the same milestone. The report features breakout statistics from Sub-Saharan African markets where around 15% of mobile subscriptions were for 4G at the end of 2020. Mobile broadband subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa are predicted to increase, reaching 76% of mobile subscriptions by 2026. However, 5G volumes are not expected to...

Nigeria Still Waiting on Federal Government’s Approval for 5G Deployment

Image sourced from the Verge. Nigeria’s final journey into the deployment of 5G technology is expected to begin sometime relatively soon, barring any unforeseen circumstances. The Guardian reports that the only obstacle to the deployment of the technology in Nigeria is approval by the country’s Federal Government. A previously existing obstacle, a supposed loose end, has recently been tightened by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Approval from the Federal Government is expected within the next few months. Nigeria’s Senate Approves 5G After two trials conducted by MTN and Ericsson in 2019, with the supervision of the NCC, Nigeria’s Upper Legislative Chamber, the Senate approved the deployment of 5G networks in the country. The Senate had agreed that the technological impact tha...

Ethio Telecom Partners with Ericsson to Launch 4G Network for South West Ethiopia

Image sourced from FurtherAfrica. Ethio Telecom is partnering with Ericsson to expand its 4G services into the South West region of Ethiopia during 2021. A decisive move that correlates with Ethiopia’s plans into introducing international investors and partners into their monopoly-laden and virtually untapped telecoms space. The service provider will use Ericsson Radio System products and solutions for this deployment. The core expansion will take place in Ethio Telecom’s regional data centres and the data centres in Addis Ababa. Through this partnership, Ethio Telecom will seek to modernise its network by transitioning from the current Operations Support Systems (OSS) systems to the more advanced and high-capacity Ericsson Network Manager (ENM). Ethio Telecom will also introduce Ericsson ...

Why Hospitals Are Such Lucrative Targets for Cybercriminals

Image sourced from Alpine Security. Ransomware attacks are on the rise. After a surge in remote working and with employees accessing organisational networks in ways that aren’t always perfectly secured, cybercrime has spiked over the past few months as malicious parties have taken advantage of the sudden move to life in lockdown. Opportunistic hackers have found a particularly tender target to focus on: hospitals and healthcare providers. Across Europe, hospitals are being taken down on a far too regular basis, causing IT systems to fail – sometimes with fatal consequences. Of all the industries to attack, why healthcare in particular? While all organisations suffer when cybercrime strikes, with lives at stake cybercriminals know hospitals can’t afford any downtime. This means those in the...

More than Half a Billion 5G Subscribers Expected by End of 2021 via New Report

Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company, Ericsson projects that 5G mobile subscriptions will exceed 580-million by the end of 2021, driven by an estimated one million new 5G mobile subscriptions every day. The forecast, which features in the twentieth edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, enhances the expectation that 5G will become the fastest adopted mobile generation. About 3.50-billion 5G subscriptions and 60% 5G world population coverage are forecast by the end of 2026. However, the pace of adoption varies widely by region. Europe is off to a slower start and has continued to fall far behind China, the U.S., Korea, Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets in the pace of 5G deployments. 5G is expected to surpass a billion subscriptions two years a...

MTN to Launch OpenRAN Network in Africa

MTN Group is leveraging its expansive footprint across Africa to test and ultimately deploy OpenRAN – an innovative technology that will enable it to launch new services more quickly, cost-effectively and seamlessly, supporting future strategies in line with the company’s Ambition 2025: Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. MTN plans to modernise its radio access networks using OpenRAN. This is in line with one of five vital enablers of MTN’s strategy: to build technology platforms that the company believes are second to none, thereby allowing for the rapid expansion of 4G and 5G population coverage across its markets. With up-to-date technology, MTN expects a reduction in its power consumption and associated carbon emissions. This, in turn, supports its plans to decarbonise its...

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