Digital transformation, engine for Africa’s telecom industry growth- Huawei

Huawei, an information communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, says that digital transformation is the key to growth in Africa’s telecom industry, and it will also empower the innovation of other industries to grow economies in the African continent.

Discussing the theme, “Building a better connected Africa”, at the AfricaCom conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Huawei revealed its focus areas that will accelerate the proliferation of digital services in Africa.

Li Peng, Huawei’s Southern Africa region president said that connectivity prevails as the panacea for the deployment of digital services and applications for enterprises, government and carriers.

“From now until 2021, the Mobile Broadband (MBB) data traffic in Africa is expected to increase by at least 26-fold, mainly driven by applications such as video, IoT and by connecting the unconnected population.”

Huawei shared the latest insights and showcased the end-to-end MBB solutions, innovative technologies and new products which will allow operators to build ubiquitous mobile broadband networks offering the best user experience.

Peng added that leveraging a broad portfolio of ICT infrastructure products, Huawei’s cloud services solutions such as digital incloud, video cloud, etc provide the reliability, agility, and price-performance needed to deliver cutting-edge applications and services quickly, safely, and securely, Huawei promotes the Cloud based ecosystem of services contents and infrastructure applications.

According to a statement by Huawei, it focuses on its core businesses and is committed to empowering carriers’ digital transformation with continuous strategic investment aiming at opening up platform capabilities to help carriers to build an open, collaborative, and win-win industry ecosystem to accelerate digital transformation.

The company demonstrated its leadership position in the ICT industry, by showcasing its innovative solutions in the main pavilion, as well as in its demo and experience pavilion, exhibiting a wide range of solutions such as Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IOT), smart home, cloud ,video, SDN/NFV, safe city, etc.

These are designed to help African telecom carriers and enterprises transform their network into an agile and flexible one and to realise operational efficiency, smart Capital expenditure (CAPEX) and business transformation in the digital era.

Through its cloud platform and opening basic video capabilities, Huawei says its video solutions enables customers to develop video services in the quickest manner, deliver supreme user experiences at a cost that was never possible before.

“Huawei video cloud will help customers to quickly bring video services online, reduces the time to market, and ensures the best user experience and data security. Video cloud supports multiple service scenarios, assisting customers in quick commercial use of video services, promoting industry cooperation and building a win-win video ecosystem based on increasingly open video capabilities.

“While the IoT solutions which are currently being launched by many carriers in Africa will drive the digital transformation of carrier’s broadband services by making the world of connected things a reality. Huawei’s LTE-based Narrow Broadband IoT (NB-IoT) technology will enable telecom operators in the region to deliver ubiquitous, cellular IoT. This technology will spark new business opportunities in smart metering, smart parking, logistics tracking, and smart cities in Africa,” Peng said.

He reiterated that connecting people in Africa remains Huawei’s top priority. “Huawei Marine in partnership with 20 carriers to build 8 new submarine cables systems and upgrade 2 existing systems in Africa to provide better international data access for 15 countries. To date, Huawei Marine is currently deploying the 6000 km repeated South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) system between Cameroon and Brazil enabling connectivity for a population of 198 million”.

 

Jumoke Akiyode