Ericsson: preparing Africa for next generation technologies and a sustainable digital future

04 November 2024

Patrick Johansson, President of EricssonMiddle East and Africa

Patrick Johansson, President of Ericsson
Middle East and Africa

Amidst rapid digital transformation across the continent, Ericsson continues to forge its path–enabling communications, upskilling a generation, and supporting rampant network expansion. Amy Saunders spoke with Patrick Johansson, President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa, to garner his views from this new role - examining everything from the continued rollout of 5G through to the challenges of the skills divide.

5G remains in its infancy across the continent; how do you see it developing, and how is Ericsson acting to advance its rollout?

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Can LEO help connect Africa?

04 November 2024

Helen Weedon, managing director,
Satcoms Innovation Group

Helen Weedon, managing director,
Satcoms Innovation Group

South Africa’s Liquid Intelligent Technologies recently signed a deal with Eutelsat Group that will see enterprise-grade Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite services being made available in Africa. The companies claim it will lead to enhanced performance for services across the continent. Will this help make Africa more connected and ultimately bridge the digital divide?

The state of connectivity in Africa

Africa is widely reported as lagging behind in internet connectivity. A report by SES in 2022 cited just 33% internet penetration. While it seems it has risen quite considerably since then, we are still looking at around 43%, much lower than elsewhere in the world. And there are bigger problems when you look at the regional differences. According to the SES report, while as many as 50% of people in urban areas are connected, this drops to 15% in rural areas. And of course those rural areas are also less connected in terms of other infrastructure, access to medical support and education, making the internet connectivity all the more important.

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Looking to the new capabilities of 5G for critical communications

01 November 2024

Kevin Graham, TCCA CEO

Kevin Graham, TCCA CEO

TCCA promotes the use of standardised technologies to deliver mission-critical communication systems that are secure, available, resilient, interoperable and, ultimately, trusted. It also supports other standardised narrowband technologies, and with the establishment of its Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) some 14 years ago, TCCA recognised the need to deploy 3GPP mobile broadband critical communications, which in many cases will complement or replace narrowband networks.

We are now in the 5G era, and with 5G rollouts advancing, the opportunities to further enhance critical communications are becoming clear. 5G is an ever-evolving technology with new features still being added. For example, network slicing is designed to allocate specific required resources to meet the requirements of different user groups, while multi-access edge computing (MEC) servers can enable low latency applications by moving processing closer to the edge.

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When retro isn’t necessarily cooler

23 October 2024

Ben Selier, Vice President, Secure Power, Anglophone Africa at Schneider Electric

Ben Selier, Vice President, Secure Power, Anglophone Africa at Schneider Electric

In a world where computational power has become the backbone of an infinite number of systems, processes and daily usage, prioritising data centre operations has become non-negotiable.

After all, the data centre is the glue that keeps the inanimate world together. The unsung hero of a world driven by AI, cloud computing and high-performance computing (HPC). And like most things in life, data centres must also operate in an environment that optimises its operations, a cool environment that is.

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