Denis Opudo
The usage of mobile devices has gone up in Africa. The mobile network providers have worked on improving their network coverage and speed. The South African telecommunication industry has moved to fifth generation (5G). The 5G network will offer faster network connectivity. The network will be able to carry more data traffic at high-speed reliability. It will do that by connecting many devices to the internet.
The 5G technology will push South Africa forward in technological innovations and connectivity. Many South African sectors’ needs will be solved through a single network. It will also improve the whole technological performance and enable increased efficiency.
The country’s mobile operators continue to invest in extending coverage. This is to serve unconnected communities. It also helps to increase the network movement to high-speed mobile broadband networks. Mobile networks have managed to move from 3G to 4G/LTE within a short period. This is due to the lack of or non-existence of mobile data like fiber in the continent. The 5G will have a gradual introduction as compared to 3G and 4G networks.
It is projected that more than 30 billion devices will be connected by 2020 globally. The first commercial 5G network roll-out will start in Japan by 2020. This means that South Africa will only leverage the network in the next two or three years.
South Africa should expect the following from 5G network. The 5G network will be much faster than 4G LTE. It will also have the ability to handle big data speed, fast enough to watch mobile 4K videos. Besides, it will deliver broadband to businesses and homes. This will be without having fiber infrastructure. It will also be able to power remote virtual reality (VR) applications in many devices.
The network will be able to support devices traveling at several hundred kilometers per hour. This comes after the failure by 3G and 4G to provide consistent connection to travelers. The 5G network will be able to support a very large number of devices per cell. These will include Internet of Things (IoT) in connected cars and many other devices. The 5G network will have network slicing. Here network will be divided depending on usage and the need. Carriers can dedicate different parts of network capacity to particular subscribers or applications.
The 5G network allows everybody to become a stakeholder. This is because of its sheer scale. Many stakeholders will lead to much collaboration by the ones in various sectors. The African economic development relies on mobile data. The 5G networks will greatly change the livelihood of those living in Africa. Therefore, innovation in Africa will go up. At the beginning of January 2018, MTN collaborated with Ericson and tested the 5G network. The trial showed the capabilities of the technology. During the live trial, MTN’s 5G network delivered 20Gbps speeds with latency below 5ms.
MTN realized that 5G would come with the following improvements over 4G;
100-times the speed
10-times reliability
100-times the connected devices
1,000-times the capacity
10-times lower latency
The increased capacity might lower the cost. That’s if enough spectrums are given to the 5G standard.
