Why Africa will love 5G ORAN

Africa traditionally faces an unfortunate vortex of burgeoning data transfer needs combined with high network/data costs and an historically crowded radio frequency spectrum.

Yet the continent’s growing hunger for inexpensive wireless data transfer capacity remains unabated, despite cost and frequency availability barriers.

The hunger is reflected in 2G’s stubborn continued use in many regions of the continent. When it first came out, 2G quickly saturated markets like South Africa and Nigeria in the absence of sufficient fixed-line networks in many areas.

In fact, when 3G became available, its rapid adoption had less to do with the superior technology’s capabilities and more with 3G’s superior data throughput.

5G Open Radio Access Network (also known as Open RAN or ORAN) brings similarly dramatic data traffic volume capacity growth over current 4G networks.

But there’s more. It provides network operators with flexible vendor selection and deployment choices that lower total cost of network ownership (TCO) as much as it increases data throughput. 5G ORAN comes in at 30-40% cheaper than traditional networks.

The combination of greater throughput and lower 5G ORAN TCO means everyone in Africa − from school children to business users − can look forward to much faster mobile internet access at much lower costs than ever before.

With good internet access increasingly seen as a basic universal need, widespread African access to 5G ORAN could provide the stimulus for significant African business growth, and speed up the awakening of a potential continental economic powerhouse.

With the ability to spark more entrepreneurship in isolated areas, the technology needs to be rolled out as fast as possible to stimulate commerce.

By replacing commercial off-the-shelf networks with ORAN, telcos can mix-and-match the best hardware and software options for their needs.

They just need to decide whether to run brownfields non-standalone networks (5G ORAN on 4G infrastructure), greenfields standalone networks (on new 5G infrastructure) − or a hybrid of the two.

ORAN cuts network TCO (in terms of energy requirements, infrastructure distribution and ongoing management) by growing networks using ongoing continuous integration / continuous delivery instead of repeated upgrade and investment cycles.

The time is ripe for a truly native low-latency operator network in Africa.

It does so by using open technology − versatile, vendor-neutral hardware and software and open interfaces. That means businesses have the flexibility to deploy the technology that best suits their needs at the lowest possible cost, without being tied into proprietary standards.

Investment is only in the functions that meet the unique needs of the business − no waste on unnecessary functions or capacity.

ORAN also fosters smart business processes using automation − based on other open-source projects. That frees up executive time and increases network data accuracy, enabling real-time data access and better strategic decisions.

In Europe, it’s easy to find fibre networks to connect to. The relative absence of that option is why 4G became so popular in Africa. Its connectivity speeds enabled SMEs to host their own websites and even transact online.

The time is ripe for a truly native low-latency operator network in Africa. But 5G ORAN, like all radio-based networks, is frequency-hungry. You need a lot of spectrum to successfully deliver bandwidth.

With many countries in Africa turning off 3G service (ironically, 2G really is still refusing to die, and will ultimately need to be phased out to make room for more efficient 5G) significant amounts of spectrum are becoming available for 5G ORAN.

Brownfields solutions on 5G ORAN are particularly relevant for the continent, since they mean appropriate services can be made available to communities without having to rebuild 3/4G infrastructure from scratch.

That said, because ORAN technology is so much cheaper than conventional networks, greenfields opportunities can be scaled up at a fraction of the cost of traditional technology and rolled out wherever communities need them.

Brownfields projects running 5G ORAN on 3/4G networks increase capacity by about three or four times − so the improvement is dramatic.

Greenfields remain first prize, however, with a tenfold capacity increase, albeit at the cost of building new network infrastructure.

But some of that cost might be mitigated by foreign companies buying carbon credits in Africa.

5G ORAN’s status means they could use it to obtain carbon credits in Africa to offset their domestic carbon footprints.

I believe 5G ORAN will soon become Africa’s de facto standard. It can accommodate market capacity and content demands, while lowering the average rate per user using data networks in a market where traditional voice business is diminishing.

By lowering TCO and supplying vital new network capacity, it gives operators radical new opportunities to partner with finance institutions and governments to implement innovative e-commerce projects to stimulate economic growth on the continent.

Because of its dramatically reduced network infrastructure costs, 5G ORAN gives new, smaller telcos better opportunities to achieve standalone status as opposed to piggybacking off bigger players’ networks, because they need to make a far smaller investment to build a brand new core network.

The process of moving commercial networks to ORAN can be confusing. Whether you’re a green/brownfields player, or planning a hybrid, it’s vital to know how best to deploy current assets while investing in 5G ORAN.

Figuring out how to deploy a brand new network while leveraging the opportunity to minimise capital expenditure is important to make sure you realise the return your business expects.

Understanding the regulatory environment and best practices for dealing with financial institutions, government, mobile operators and technology vendors only adds to the confusion.

For example, 5G ORAN creates the ability for mobile phones to port seamlessly between private networks and national carrier networks as people arrive at or leave the office.

So, as people bring their own devices to work, those devices become extensions of the company network when they arrive at the office.

This creates commercial opportunities for individuals to get preferential rates if they are employed by a carrier’s corporate client.

Find a partner positioned to help you grasp 5G ORAN and navigate the complexities of the opportunity it presents.