Dr. Mohamed Madkour, Vice President of Global Carrier Network Solutions & Marketing at Huawei Headquarters, led a roundtable discussion on Africa’s digital and economic development despite the continent’s increasingly large-scale adoption of 5G. emphasized how important 4G and LTE will continue to be for .
At a roundtable held around AfricaCom, the largest technology conference on the African continent, Madkour discussed the importance of LTE as a business development foundation for operators to roll out 5G, and the use of 4G and 5G together. Benefits, 5G rollouts on network evolution, and 5G dynamics in Africa.
As the world rapidly adopts 5G, African operators will want to get on board. This is especially true given the benefits offered in terms of speed, cost, and power efficiency. But as Madkour points out, 4G technologies such as LTE have had, and will continue to have, a huge impact on the world.
“4G has done amazing things for people all over the world. There are so many companies that could only have been created because of 4G, which added trillions of dollars to the global economy.”
The same is true for Africa, where 5G rollouts are still in their infancy. “It’s only been three years since 5G came out and he’s only scratched the surface,” he said.
One of the key lessons the continent can learn from the rest of the world is that having a strong 4G network will make 5G deployment much easier.
“The secret to great 5G is inspired by carriers with strong 4G. Optimal user experience is strong 4G and 5G.”
“4G has been great in Africa, but penetration is still around 50%,” he added. “5G is small. 4G still needs to grow and then he can put 5G on top where it makes sense. It reduces the investment required for 5G.”
This is already evident in countries around the world, with some carriers using LTE connections for voice calls. This is to provide the highest network efficiency.
The focus on continued 4G growth is especially important given that half of all households on the continent are unconnected or poorly connected, Madkour added. As fiber deployment is a challenge in many countries, solutions such as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) offer significant opportunities to connect these households.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how important it is to have this kind of fast, affordable connectivity within the home. A few years ago, home connections might have been important for entertainment, after-hours work, or school homework research. Today, it’s a place for everything from work to small businesses to education. By facilitating connectivity through FWA and related technologies, operators encourage customers to adopt 5G when it becomes available. Broadband connectivity is available to millions of households in sub-Saharan Africa, but they are not yet connected, creating a huge market opportunity.
“Because we can continue to deploy 4G, we don’t need to change equipment significantly when we switch to 5G,” said Madkour. 5G is just a continuation, an extension of existing capabilities. ”
African operators will also need to deploy 5G to enable people and businesses on the continent to remain globally competitive. To do that, he should focus on his 5G service that best suits his customer’s needs and location, as well as his own capabilities.
“No carrier can implement 5G on everything,” said Madkour. “For a successful launch, you need a plan to make money.”
Home connectivity is one business case, but so is providing private 5G lines to businesses and connectivity to smart connected cars. There are many others. It is also important to remember that 5G networks will not only earn revenue from service, but also from cost effectiveness. For example, it costs only 4% to send one bit of data using a 5G connection compared to its 4G equivalent. However, whichever of these business cases an operator chooses to pursue (individually or in combination), it is still important to understand the market in which they operate.
As an example, Madkour cites the cost of devices in the consumer sector.
“We all know that 5G device penetration is low in Africa,” he said. “So affordable devices are key for the continent.”
Madkour also believes that Africa should not rely solely on networks and carriers to get the most out of 5G.
“This industry needs significant investment from everyone,” he said.
This includes governments, which play an important role in ensuring the issuance of frequency licenses.
Madkour believes further progress will be made, leading to the eventual launch of 6G. But for now, “everyone’s taking it step by step,” he says.