Cape Town, 23 Nov 2022
After a pandemic-induced break, the Huawei MBB VIP Salon returned as an in-person event this year. Now in its fifth year, the salon formed part of Huawei’s presence at the Africa Tech Festival (including AfricaCom) and brought together Huawei experts and operators to discuss the latest developments around mobile broadband in southern Africa.
In particular, the salon sought to highlight how the synergy between 4G and 5G is helping stimulate mobile broadband growth across the region. The groundwork for this messaging was laid out before the event even began, with by Cao Ming, President of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, penning an article in which he analysed the latest trends in global mobile broadband technological development.
"It took less than 10 years for mobile broadband to become the norm, bringing broadband access to global users and pushing forward a booming mobile internet,” he wrote. “Technology creates value, and innovation is the engine for future growth. 5G has already become a key infrastructure for pushing digital transformation in society as well as the healthy development of the digital economy.”
As the industry moves forward, Ming believes that evolving to ultra-wideband, multi-antenna, intelligent and energy-saving technologies is the only solution for operators looking to fulfil the explosive demand for data traffic from a growing base of users by maximising the potential of limited site and spectrum resources while minimising network energy consumption.
It’s a view that was backed up by Dr Mohamed Fouad Madkour, Huawei's Vice-President Global Carrier Networks Solutions & Marketing, who led a media roundtable exploring the ongoing role of 4G as 5G connections are rolled out across the region.
"Even if 5G scales up extensively in other regions, 4G can still help develop the digital economy in Africa,” he said, adding: “4G can serve as the foundation for operators seeking to extend their 5G presence."
Dr Madkour further pointed out the necessity of 4G-5G co-ordination, the impact 5G has on network evolution and the driving force behind 5G growth across Africa.
Opening formal proceedings at the salon, Perry Yang, Vice-President of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line, delivered a keynote in which he discussed some of the latest trends in mobile broadband and fixed wireless access (FWA).
Emmanuel Coelho Aves, Huawei's senior wireless director, meanwhile, analysed both current developments and future trends in global 4G-5G co-ordination. He pointed out that by 2025, despite forecasts of 3G/4G penetration rate exceeding 80% in Africa, 5G penetration rate may still be below 10%.
Key to ensuring that 5G penetration is higher is operators using complementary frequency bands. Doing so, Aves pointed out, helps build network synergy effects in terms of spectrum, planning and networking architecture.
Zoltan Miklos, General Manager of Network Planning at MTN South Africa, provided insight into how his company successfully co-ordinated 4G and 5G in South Africa. He stated that MTN South Africa is committed to building premium networks for digital life, providing excellent user experience, accelerating digital transformation and leading Africa's progress through digital solutions. These depend on the co-ordination of 4G and 5G networks, which covers consistent user experience, network coverage improvement and optimal multi-service network services.
For his part, Barry Hou, President of Huawei 5G Wireless Marketing & Solution Sales, explained how FWA is booming globally and how it could be rolled out in Africa.
“Africa has a huge market potential for home broadband,” he said. “Huawei can help African operators achieve FWA business success.”
James Maitai, Director for Networks at Safaricom Kenya, elaborated on these opportunities. He pointed out that the market potential for wireless home broadband and private line services for SMEs in Kenya is huge, dozens of times that of fibre to the home (FTTH). Fixed-FWA co-ordination is a crucial step towards HBB. The advanced package design of 4G FWA and 5G FWA can easily provide 100Mbps-plus connections to homes.
Giulio Cavalli, Huawei's senior microwave expert, then spoke about how microwaves are crucial to co-ordinating 4G and 5G. He then pointed out that simplified microwave will be the future, with full-band 10Gbps to the site for 5G.
Solomzi Mnyaka, Senior Manager Transmission Planning at MTN South Africa, expanded on this by sharing the opportunities and challenges of microwave development in South Africa. He pointed out that to meet its own stringent requirements, transmission and access face challenges. Among the challenges he identified is the fact that 5G requires high-capacity microwave links. 5G backhaul will also bring challenges to traditional equipment rooms. Ultimately, he said, microwave will continue to play a key role in site backhaul in southern Africa.
Finally, Liu Zhi, Director of Huawei Packet Core Network Product Line, introduced the high-stability core network that features fast service recovery and excellent resilience in the face of signal storms, making it ideal for African markets.
The salon attracted more than 70 regional operator experts.
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