08 September 2022

Nokia successfully piloted 4G and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) network slicing in Kenya’s Western Region with the help of the country’s biggest telco, Safaricom.
The Finnish tech firm said this pilot program is the first time that 4G and 5G network slicing has been successfully tested anywhere in Africa.

“The trial utilised a multivendor network environment and included RAN, transport and core as well as software upgrades to a range of Nokia’s products and services,” said Nokia in a release.

The pilot tested equipment from multiple vendors and took place on Safaricom’s live commercial network. Nokia said that it provided base stations, network management software tools and customer-premises equipment (CPE).

Network slicing enables operators to divide their networks into multiple logical slices, each capable of maintaining independent end-to-end levels of service quality, network performance, and security. It is generally seen as the unique province of 5G networks, but Nokia claims primacy as the first company to offer 4G/5G end-to-end slicing.

“Safaricom is now poised to support new types of enterprise network services, including fast lane internet access and application slicing,” said Nokia.

James Maitai, Safaricom network director, said that Safaricom was “looking forward to tailoring our service offerings to individual customers and industries, to meet their needs for high-speed connectivity precisely and without unnecessary cost.”