Kenya among 4 African Countries expected to have 5G network by 2022

Kenya is among four African countries expected to have launched 5G network by 2022 according to research and consulting firm Ovum.

The countries identified include  Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, and South Africa.

Insights from CIO, the 5G era will bring to life amazing use cases, mostly encompassing mobile broadband, massive IoT, and mission-critical IoT.

However, Ovum in its ‘Africa Market Outlook 2018-Moving from communications services to digital services report, it  says “Initial take-up will be modest, with fewer than 1 million 5G subscriptions on the continent at end-2022.”

In its broadband outlook, Ovum says its adoption will grow strongly in Africa over the coming few years, driven by the continued rollout of mobile broadband networks and the increasing affordability of smartphones.

“Mobile broadband subscriptions will account for 40 percent of the 1.05 billion mobile subscriptions in Africa at end-2017 and 79.9 percent of the 1.34 billion mobile subscriptions on the continent at end-2022,” said Matthew Reed, Practice Leader the Middle East and Africa at Ovum.

Ovum adds that the next biggest mobile broadband technology is LTE, which is forecasted to have 210.43 million subscriptions at end-2022.

The consulting firm estimates that Africa’s mobile internet connections are set to hit 1 billion mobile broadband subscriptions by 2022.

It forecasts that there will be more than 1 billion mobile broadband subscriptions in Africa by the end of 2022, and non-SMS mobile data revenue on the continent will grow at a rate of 25.1 percent over the 2016–22 period.

“Data connectivity is growing strongly in Africa, and there are also good prospects on the continent in areas such as digital media, mobile financial services, and the Internet of Things,” said Matthew Reed, Practice Leader Middle East, and Africa at Ovum.

“But as Africa’s TMT market becomes more convergent and complex, service providers are under increasing pressure to make the transition from being providers of communications services, and to become providers of digital services.”

Besides the positive outlook,  Ovum states that  Africa’s broadband development still lags behind the rest of the world, providing data connectivity is an increasingly substantial part of most operators’ businesses on the continent, and is set for significant further growth.

Reed says, “ Regulators and other authorities should be looking to improve the level of broadband development on the continent through their strategies for licensing, spectrum allocation, and universal service funds. For their part, operators should focus on data pricing and on innovation in business models to improve broadband use on a commercial basis.”

He notes that data and digital are the main growth prospects for operators in Africa and should be central to their strategies.

“Operators should also be developing other promising digital service categories, notably IoT services for utilities, agriculture, industrial sectors such as mining, and the public sector. Operator digital strategies should also include the application of technology to improve the efficiency and coherence of their own organizations.”

Ovum forecasts that total mobile revenue in Africa will increase at a CAGR of 4.8 percent between 2016 and 2022, to reach $69.36bn in 2022.