Huawei Partners AIGF 2016

Huawei Technologies, is taking part at the ongoing African Internet Governance Forum taking place from 16 – 18 October at the Durban International Convention Centre in South Africa.

The annual event which started in 2012, is now on its 5th edition having been Hosted by Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

The event is focused on the regulatory policies on the Internet, the challenges and possible solutions to ensure Africa does not continue to lag behind the rest of the world.

Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Dr. Mouhamadou Moussa who is Director of Innovations and Industrial relations at Huawei technologies said that the key take away points at the summit were getting people connected in Africa, Infrastructure development and Internet for all which goes in line with Huawei’s strategy in Africa of connecting 1 billion people on the continent.

As Huawei is an Infrastructure vendor, it is striving to make connectivity a basic need for everyone to reach the rural parts of Africa as their motto is building a better connected Africa. They are trying to come up with new technologies and ideas to provide internet access to the African people which is very affordable.

Asked what new technologies they are putting in place and how they are assisting African governments and the African union, Dr. Mouhamadou Moussa said “by new technologies they will be going in line with global industry development trend by introducing 5G and LTE advance”.

This technology he says is ready in their laboratories and they are just waiting for spectrums to be released. With a single 5G base station, it can cover a radius of 100 km which would be very useful for Africa as it covers a huge population.

Huawei has already started engaging with different governments as in South Africa where the government has released a white paper themed “broadband for all” which is a step forward for South Africa.

Also commenting, Huawei’s Director of Government and public Affairs, Jacky Zhang said Internet coverage in Africa is below 20% and Huawei has already build 50000 km of fibre in contribution to ensure that more people get connected. In Rural remote areas, it is costly to roll out fibre so Huawei is bringing in wireless technology which is cost effective and easy for people in those areas to use mobile phones to access the internet.

Asked how much fibre Africa needed to ensure the whole continent is covered, Jacky Zhang said we cannot use the Europe model where they can peg every corner as Europe is a small continent compared to Africa which is vast. In Africa the model is to roll out fibre in the most populated urban areas and use wireless in the rural areas which is less costly.

Huawei’s base stations cover nearly 60% of the market across Africa with over 20000 stations.

On skills and manpower to operate and maintain the operations across Africa, Huawei has built training centres over the last 10 years and also joint Innovation centres with operators and other stakeholders to train students and their staff.

The Idea is to come to Africa and work together with its people to see how they can Innovate, progress and overcome the challenges.

By Vardis Banga