5G to dominate mobile subscriptions in Africa by 2022- Ericsson

Ericsson at the just concluded annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) predicted that 5G technology will hold a considerable share of mobile subscriptions on the African continent closer to 2022. Attendees at CES 2017 learnt more about the support 5G can give to personal entertainment experiences, industrial efficiencies and future smart cities.

Delegates were also given the opportunity to experience how the 5G ecosystem will enable innovation for new use cases, and business models over 5G.Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Ericsson, lauded the advent of 5G and discussed practical daily uses of the technology with guests from SK Telecom and BMW during a CES SuperSession.

Ericsson demonstrated some of the latest 5G capabilities including higher bandwidth, lower latency, greater density, lower energy requirements, greatly increased security, network slicing and cellular for Massive IoT (Internet of Things) technologies at CES 2017.

“The only way we are going to get to a 5G world is through the cultivation of use cases that expand our understanding of what 5G technology can do, as well as provide real value to consumers and enterprises,” said Ewaldsson.

Ericsson forecasts threefold growth in mobile broadband subscriptions in Middle East and Africa between 2016 and 2022.

The company has predicted that, over the forecast period, the Middle East and Africa will dramatically shift from a region with a majority of GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions, to a region where 80% of the subscriptions will be WCDMA/HSPA, LTE and 5G. Coverage by 5G will commence, according to Ericsson, in metropolitan and urban areas.

The company’s sub-saharan mobility report which was issued in November 2016 anticipates mobile data traffic growth of around 55 percent annually in Africa in the six years leading up to 2022.

“Mobile traffic growth in sub-saharan africa will remain strong in the next few years, driven by increasing mobile subscriptions, wider network coverage and the continued reduction in prices of both devices and services offered,” according to the report.