The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • Vconnect partners Eskimi

    A Lithuania-based firm and largest programmatic network in Africa, Eskimi DSP, has partnered Vconnect, an indigenous online service marketplace, to introduce a new digital product into the country.

    Eskimi CEO, Vytas Paukstys, said: “We were always getting requests from banks and financial clients to be able to reach small and medium enterprise segment. It is very hard to separate and target this segment online. Our partnership with Vconnect introduces a new product in the market and we already are able to reach 50,000 small and medium business owners and  two million young professionals with intent to buy products and services.”

    Targeting small and medium enterprise segment helps to reach right users at the right time. So, narrowing down the segment for small and medium enterprise helps to save budget, allows to speak to right consumers and reach marketing goals, he added.

    Other segments will also target users by specific segment and products that consumers are looking on the Vconnect site. Companies can reach users, who are looking for generator repair professionals, insurance providers, IT service providers, electricians, among others. They can also reach the overall audience of Vconnect, which represents the higher socio-economic class, educated and urban consumer segment. The audience size is over two million.

    A statement said the partnership was launched based on Eskimi Audience and Inventory Extensionsolution, which enables publishers to enter data market and open new data revenue streams.

    Publishers, who have valuable and niche audiences, can use Eskimi Audience and Inventory Extension functionality to re-target their audience outside their site.

    This allows the increase of the reach and inventory of a specific audience up to two times.

  • DBI inaugurates $1m lab in Abuja

    An ultra-modern laboratory worth $1million has been inaugurated at the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Abuja.

    The Telecommunication Network Equipment Laboratory to promote skills workforce was donated by Huawei Technologies Nigeria.

    According to the Administrator of DBI, Mr. Ike Adinde, investment in skilled workforce is not only the way to go particularly for a developing economy like Nigeria, but crucial given the potentials and opportunities available in the country.

    Addressing guest at the inauguration of the laboratory, Mr Adinde said: “In an increasingly globalised world, there is the urgent need for us to train and make available to the industry highly skilled human resources to serve as key drivers of the economy.

    “It is in response to these challenges that the DBI has built this ultra-modern Lab to train and equip Nigerians with relevant ICT skills for the 21st century to tackle challenges presented by the fourth industrial revolution which requires tailor-made solutions that keep pace with the ever-evolving telecom industry.‘’

    Adinde said the laboratory project was started last July with the donation of a complement of modern telecom equipment by Huawei Technologies to DBI.

    He said the laboratory has transmission equipment and ultra-modern next-Generation Core Network Switching Centre that give a complete end-to-end telecoms scenario.

    “One major benefit of the equipment is that it uses real-world industrial quality components to help students become better prepared for what they will encounter on the job.

    “The lab is equally effective for technicians, engineers, field workers and anyone needing further understanding and skills in wireless telecommunications,” he said.

    DBI Chairman Mr Titi Omo-Ettu said the inauguration represented a leap in the efforts of the institute to provide qualitative hands with practical telecommunications and ICT training.

    Omo-Ettu said the development of skilled workforce across all sectors of the economy had become a national priority.

    He said: “We are keenly aware that there is a global shift from natural resources as a basis for national competitiveness to human resources underpinned by knowledge innovation.

    “Interestingly, it is also increasingly evident that innovation is not about academic qualifications or certificates, the emphasis is on skills and creative abilities of the individual.”

  • Infinix ready for competition

    A mobile phone brand, Infinix, said it is prepared for the competition that will mark the mobile phone ecosystem this year.

    In a statement, it said it has established itself as Africa’s biggest intelligent smartphone makers through a series of product sale campaigns and expertly executed user engagement activities.

    “In a stiffly competitive market such as the smartphone industry that constantly witnesses a towering influx of new entrants, all claiming to have the best products with an undeniable IT factor that would shake up the market in their favour, it has almost become a case of everyone’s talking and the one who makes the most noise automatically becomes the one that amasses a larger consumer base,” it said.

    Upon entry into the Nigerian smartphone market in 2012, it said it identified a severe lack within the system and proffered a sustainable solution, which was utilising a feedback system to understand the smartphone needs of its target audience and then craft smartphones that embodied a delicate fusion of futuristic technology and fashion to suit the lifestyle of young people.

    Infinix smartphones have always symbolised optimum efficiency and technological acumen.

    However, the era of the intelligent smartphone was officially ushered in by the launch of the “Beyond Intelligent” Note 5 smartphone in June 2018 that showcased the dexterity of Artificial Intelligence with its A.I camera that can automatically pick the best settings for high quality images with milliseconds.

  • USPF commits to creating jobs

    The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) Secretary, Ayuba Shuaibu, has pledged the Fund’s commitment to providing support for start-ups and creating jobs for the youths through information communication technology (ICT).

    Ayuba, who spoke during the grand finale of Changemaker Challenge 2018 at Kanem Suites, Utako, Abuja, said the Innovative ICT Solutions and Entrepreneurship Development (IISED) project is one of the initiatives of the USPF, which provides platform for ICT start-ups to create working prototypes of solutions capable of deepening ICT penetration while creating jobs for the young ICT entrepreneurs. The occasion,  which had: The Future is Here: Disrupting Legacy Ecosystem with Technology as theme,  ended with three teams emerging as winners. The first prize winner of N1,000,000 went to Real Media with placesandservices.com.ng. Team members include Nwosu Oluebube and Ijaola David while the second prize of N750,000 went to Team Xavier with Beza X product. Members of the team are Ogunranti Adebayo and Samson Okubanjo.

    The third prize of N500,000 went toTeam iNeeds the iNeeds.ng product. Its team members are Nwosu Isochukwu, Mfonobong Umondia David, Jideofor  Ochiabutor  Chuka and Peter Cynthia.

    The teams developed impactful technology driven applications by building fully working prototypes of their solutions through specific technical guidelines.

    The event was held between January 25 and 27,  2019  and it afforded the teams that participated the opportunity to network and connect with brilliant software developers, UX Designers, Data Scientists, ICT Experts, Budding Entrepreneurs, Strategists, Angel Investors,  Idea Funders, Public Policy Experts, Incubation Experts and Technology Enthusiasts.

    The USPF Changemaker Challenge 2018  has indeed, lived up to expectation and paved the  way for the birthing of more business ideas, which would hopefully add value to the economy.

    The decision was reached by a panel of judges comprising Kolapo Solesi, Managing Partner, Abridge Consulting; Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr., Co-founder, GoDo.ng; Chioma Agwuegbo, Founder, TechHer; Adetunji Obakeye, IT Professional;  Deji Olarinre, co-founder, Hullnet; Aisha Amoka, founder, Makifa Network and Moses Malan Faya, Technology Lawyer, all with diverse experiences that helped guide the various teams until the winners emerged.

  • Cyberspace achieves ISO 9001:2015 QMS

    AN indigenous tech firm, Cyberspace Limited, has achieved the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) of the British Standard Institute (BSI).

    Sector Lead/Trade Advisor for ICT, United Kingdom International Trade and Investment, Ms Boma Beddie-Memberr, will officially hand over the certificate to Cyberspace Limited on behalf of BSI in Lagos.

    According to BSI, ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised QMS standard, which offers maximum business benefits designed to be a powerful business improvement tool which helps organisations to manage social, environmental and financial risks; improve operational effectiveness; reduce costs; increase customer and stakeholder satisfaction. Others, according to BSI, include brand and reputation protection; removal of barriers to trade and bringing clarity to marketplace.

    With this achievement, Cyberspace Limited has further demonstrated its commitment to the improvement of its operational processes in line with global best practice, building a resilient and sustainable business with strong corporate governance.

    Speaking with reporters in Lagos, Cyberspace Audit Team Co-ordinator, Mr. Fred Young, said: “Cyberspace is an indigenous company that has its business processes aligned with global best practice. We started many years ago with ISO 9001:2008 until last year when we decided to work with BSI for the ISO 9001:2015. It was a much more rigorous certification process but at the end, we are better for it.”

    Young said the benefits of ISO 9001 include helping the firm to demonstrate to stakeholders that its business is run effectively and that the process of achieving and maintaining the certification helps ensure that the firm is continually improving.

    Founded in 1995, Cyberspace Limited has become a one-stop Systems Integration company with wide and varied experience in solving complex business challenges, which guarantees excellent customer satisfaction.

     

  • NCC: cybercrooks use sophisticated tools

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned telecoms subscribers to be extra careful as criminal elements have now turned to telecoms infrastructure to defraud their unsuspecting victims.

    Its Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Mrs. Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, who gave the warning, said as broadband penetration gets deeper for promotion of positive engagements and efficient economic activities, the tendency for some internet users to use such access for criminal and illegal activities will be on the rise, thereby requiring adequate consumer education.

    Meanwhile, the NCC said as part of its consumer protection activities, it received and satisfactorily resolved 92,757 service-related complaints escalated to it for resolution by aggrieved telecoms consumers in the past two years.

    Onwuegbuchulam, who spoke at the 26th edition of the Consumer Town Hall Meeting (CTM)  with Mitigating Effects of Cybercrimes: The Role of Telecom Consumers as theme, in Mokwa, Niger State, said businesses and individuals in  every country rely on Information Communication Technology (ICT) for their day-to-day activities, where internet is playing a key role in interconnectivity of devices.

    She said as the Commission embarks on various initiatives to increase access to the internet for positive engagements, hackers and cybercriminals also deploy sophisticated systems in intruding into connected devices to perpetrate their exploitation schemes.

    “It is common knowledge that the use of internet has become part of telecom consumer’s daily activities whether at home, in the workplace or any social setting.  Smartphones and other smart devices used by telecom consumers are a storehouse of data, carrying sensitive information about the telecoms consumers, his or her family, businesses, associates and daily interactions as well as financial transactions details. Admittedly, the Internet touches almost all aspects of our lives as telecom consumers,” she said

    NNC Consumer Affairs Bureau Deputy Director, Alhaji Ismail Adedigba, in a report detailing consumer protection activities of the NCC said the 92,757 service-related complaints were settled in record time.

    He said: “Between January 2017 and December 2018, the Commission received a total of 118,784 complaints from consumers, of which 92,757, representing 78 per  cent of total complaints received during the two years period were successfully resolved to the satisfaction of telecom consumers,” he said.

    He said 5,010 appreciations were received from some consumers who felt satisfied after the Commission had successfully resolved their issues for them and therefore, decided to formally write and call the Commission to express their gratitude for the Commission interventionist efforts.

    The complaints and appreciations, he said, were received through the Commission’s various channels of lodging complaints and interactive engagement platforms. These include the NCC toll-free Line – 622, which is the Commission’s Contact Centre, the NCC Consumer Portal, consumer complaint redress email, written complaints, social media as well as those received at the Commission’s various outreach programmes which include Consumer Town Hall Meeting (CTM), Consumer Outreach Programme (COP) and Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP).

    Through the three consumer outreach programmes usually held by the Commission across various states on a rotational basis, Adedigba said more than 31,202 consumers have been engaged face-to-face and adequately educated on their rights and privileges with respect to provision of telecoms services within the last two years.

    He said during such fora, consumer fact sheets developed by the Commission on various service-related topical issues are also distributed to educate consumers on various issues in the industry.

    “The Commission places a lot of importance on consumer-related issues. For this reason, the Commission has embarked on various initiatives, aimed at enlightening and protecting the consumers to ensure they get quality services, that they are treated right by the service providers and that they get value for money spent on telecom services, be it voice or data.

    “Also, we ensure that we embark on initiatives aimed at providing wider service options as well as putting more control in the hands of the consumers to determine what they receive, especially in terms of value-added services (VAS) in line with our ‘PIE’ Mandate of Protecting, Informing and Educating the consumers. We understand the industry is big and we are doing our best to ensure consumer get quality service delivery,” he said.

  • ‘Glo has largest digital library in Nigeria’

    Nigeria’s second largest carrier, Globacom, at the weekend said it has the largest digital library in the country, stressing that it would continue to do more to satisfy its customers.

    Senior Manager, Events, Sola Mogaji, who spoke during a media event at Eko Hotel, said the telco’s mobile money platform was ready to go live in a matter of weeks.

    According to him, the telco’s mobile money platform is safe and convenient. He added that users need not have expensive mobile phones to use the platform neither is queueing in the brick and mortal banking hall necessary any longer.

    Other initiatives of the telco include Glo Drive; Glo Healthcare; Glo Call Connect Services; Business Traveller World Connect; Glo Titi, an artificial intelligence customer care attendant and Glo Entertainment Portal, which he said contained some 12,000 hours of Hollywood and Nollywood blockbuster movies.

  • Telcos: banks liable for stolen cash via mobile networks

    Telcos said they are not liable for any cash stolen by fraudsters riding on their networks.

    Acting under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecoms Companise of Nigeria (ALTON),  they advised bank cutomers to hold their banks responsible for any money lost to cyber crooks using mobile phones.

    Speaking in Lagos during the last Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the group’s Executive Secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga, said the lenders should set up a 24/7 customer helpline for customers to lodge complaints, adding that the lenders should also ensure prompt response.

    Awonuga, who represented the Chairman of the group, Gbenga Adebayo, said the group was worried at the increasing spate of frauds being perpetrated through the telecoms network and urged stakeholders to come out with solutions to tackle the menace.

    Reacting to the problem, Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau at NCC, Philip Eretan, said the use of telecoms infrastructure to defraud bank customers is a big challenge facing the regulator.

    He said fraudsters have turned to the mobile network to swindle people of their hard-earned cash.

    He warned bank and telecoms customers to be extremely careful in sharing their bank details with charlatans, who will pretend as officials of the banks.

    He gave the warning against the backdrop of an increase in the case of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card swap, which he said has become alarming.

    Eretan, however, assured that the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were working together to address the issue, lamenting that crimes move faster than investigation.

    Earlier on, Mr A. Akande of the Advertising Practioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) complained about unsolicited adverts on his mobile phones.

    He cited an advert on a certain phone number, which took him to a website which he later found out was in Ghana.

    He said he called the phone number and someone in Enugu, Enugu State, picked his call and compalined to him that fraudstsers have been using his phone number to to perpetrate fraud.

    He wanted to know what the NCC was doing about situation like this, especially when SIM cards are supposed to be registered.

    NCC’s Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs, Ismail Adedigba, who responded, regretted that the elite hardly read local newspapers nor listen to local channels.

    He said if people in the elite class were either watching CNN, or reading a foreign newsmagazine.

    He said the NCC has done so much in sensitising the subscribers across the country through its Consumer Outreach Programmes, monthly Telecoms Consumer Parliament, Town Hall Meetings and others, adding that the Commission has put in place several measures in place to protect the consumers.

  • Stanbic IBTC to empower youth with tech

    Frontline financial services provider, Stanbic IBTC, said it will continue to leverage technology to empower youth for sustainable economic development.

    The lender, which unveiled its strategic objectives ahead of the Lagos Social Media Week, which it is sponsoring, said rather than leveraging the annual platform to sell, it will be highlight the tools and basics of formal career development, entrepreneurship drive and business management that will create wealth  and secure a promising future for the youth.

    The yearly conference and exhibition will hold between February 4 and 8. It has With great influence comes great responsibility as theme. The event, renowned for eliciting interesting conversations and bringing together diverse perspectives, has gained popularity as a platform to discuss the most productive ways to harness social platforms to drive thought and innovation, improve consumer experiences and foster collaborations.

    The Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mr. Yinka Sanni, said the organisation’s participation and sponsorship of the forum was an expression of its determination and commitment to availing young, vibrant  youths, irrespective of background and position in life, requisite mentorship and guidance to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.

    He added that this essential career management, wealth creation and preservation tools, principles and basics, undoubtedly, transcends financial knowledge and status.

    Sanni said the lender will showcase some renowned resource persons, including career counselling and employability training specialist, Dr. Dipo Awojide, a Lecturer in Strategy at the Nottingham Business School, United Kingdom and founder of the BeenThereDoneThat Hub (BTDT Hub), who has built a global reputation in career coaching and counselling.

    According to the organisers, the forum will focus on ideas, trends, insights, inspiration to help both individuals and businesses across the creative, technology and financial industries understand how to achieve more in a hyper-connected world and engender good business practices and policies that leverage technology to transform industries and communities across Africa. The event also features a mixture of keynotes, panels, workshops, masterclasses and presentations on a wide range of topics, including business, entertainment, education, technology and politics, all aimed at advancing the use of social media, and an area dedicated to co-working and interactive installations.

    Also featuring are genuine success case studies to reinforce and underpin the importance of key career growth attributes like dedication, consistency, proactivity, resilience, adaptability, positivity, hard work, etc. and wealth generation experts amongst other keynote speakers.

    “I hereby use this opportunity to invite members of the general public, especially the young, vibrant and enterprising and the larger social community to join us at Social Media Week Lagos 2019, as we promise all our guests a very enriching interaction and engagement,” Sanni said.

  • Tech giants jostle to lead 5G deployment

    Less than a month for tech giants to converge on Barcelona, Spain, for this year’s Mobile World Congress, the race for fifth-generation (5G) firsts is heating up. The tech fiesta, scheduled for between February 25 and 28, is the largest exhibition for the mobile industry. It will also be a thought-leadership conference featuring prominent executives, who represent telcos, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors and content owners, writes LUCAS AJANAKU.

    Chinese telecoms giants, ZTE and Huawei, have announced new 5G-related breakthroughs in the last two weeks, as equipment makers and telecom operators ramp up rhetoric on the 5G technology.

    Huawei is the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment and ranks second in global smartphone sales, behind Samsung and ahead of Apple. ZTE is China’s second largest telecom vendor and the fourth largest globally.

    ZTE last week claimed it made “the world’s first 5G call” by means of ZTE’s 5G prototype smartphone at a field trial in Shenzhen, China.

    However, Fiona Vanier, ICT senior analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said in June, last year, Finnish operator Elisa claimed it had made the first 5G phone call, which took place between the Estonian Minister of Economy Kadri Simson in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner in Tampere, Finland.

    “Everyone wants to be the first to do something. Obviously, 5G phone calls are exciting news since this heralds the advent of 5G communications, which is much more important than being ‘the first’,” Vanier said.

    Director of Business Development at Africa Analysis, Dobek Pater, said ZTE in particular, has been trying to place itself at the forefront of the 5G ‘revolution’ as a thought and technical leader. This is an attempt to position itself for future 5G competition as a vendor.

    So, why is a 5G phone call such a big deal anyway? Vanier said it is significant because it represents the next evolutionary stage in the development of mobile connectivity.

    “This is not so much about a 5G call as it is about the broader possibilities that will be enabled with 5G technology. 5G technology will facilitate the support of many more mobile devices, will reduce network traffic and congestion and will allow for the development of many more Internet of things (IoT) services. It will also enable the development of smart cities, with more and more municipal services being administrated and run via mobile networks. In addition, 5G networks utilise much less power than their 4G or 3G counterparts, which is good for the environment,” she said.

    Pater added that this is significant because the expectation is that with 5G, all calls will be made as data calls, doing away with the traditional circuit-switched call technology.

    He said many operators have already been moving to mobile voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) over 4G networks (VoLTE), so 5G will be the logical progression of this.

    However, in the South African context, he said mobile operators have not moved holistically to mobile VoIP services, although the service is available.

    One of the reasons, according to him, is that there are still a lot of 2G handsets in use in South Africa and will remain in use for at least the next few years. We expect that by the time we see broader 5G deployment in South Africa, probably two to three years from now, there will still be 2G handsets in use in the country. Therefore, even though the technology will be available to make VoIP calls over 5G infrastructure, traditional circuit-switched calling will still be very much in use.

    ZTE said the field test with China Unicom was the world’s first commercial test to call in the non-standalone mode and also “completed the verification of diverse services, such as WeChat group voice call, online video and Web browsing”.

    He said these types of services are already in use but will become a lot more prevalent over the next few years. “Some of these are more data-intensive than others (eg, video streaming/downloading/video calls) and 5G networks will be better suited to handle such traffic on a large  scale. However, in  the context of ZTE test, it is important to successively test the simpler applications to ensure the technology (from standards perspective) is stable and delivers what is expected of it.

    “In general, 5G infrastructure will be used to handle large quantities of data traffic simultaneously, allowing the proliferation of usage of data-intensive apps and a lot more location-based services. At this point, we don’t even know what apps may be coming to the fore by the time 5G is prevalent. They are yet to be invented,” he added.

    Huawei’s 5G chipset, 5GCPE pro unveiled

     Last weekend, Huawei officially launched its 5G multi-mode chipset, Balong 5000, along with the first commercial 5G device powered by it, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro. Together, these two new products provide the world’s fastest wireless connections for your smartphone, your home, the office, and on the go.

    Balong 5000 unlocks the 5G era. This chipset supports a broad range of 5G products in addition to smartphones, including home broadband devices, vehicle-mounted devices, and 5G modules. It will provide consumers with a brand new 5G experience across multiple scenarios.

    Huawei’s Consumer Business Group CEO, Richard Yu, said: “The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers. It will enable everything to sense, and will provide the high-speed connections needed for pervasive intelligence. Powered by the Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro enables consumers to access networks more freely and enjoy an incredibly fast connected experience.

    “Huawei has an integrated set of capabilities across chips, devices, cloud services, and networks. Building on these strengths, as the leader of the 5G era, we will bring an inspired, intelligent experience to global consumers in every aspect of their lives.”

    With a small form factor and high degree of integration, Balong 5000 supports 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G on a single chip. It effectively reduces latency and power consumption when exchanging data between different modes, and will significantly enhance user experience in the early stages of commercial 5G deployment. Balong 5000 marks a significant step forward for the Balong series of chipsets.

    It is the first chipset to perform to industry benchmarks for peak 5G download speeds. At Sub-6 gidahertz (GHz) (low-frequency bands, the main spectrum used for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 4.6 Gbps. Huawei said on mm wave spectrum (high-frequency bands used as extended spectrum for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 6.5 Gbps – 10 times faster than top 4G LTE speeds on the market today.

    Balong 5000 is also the world’s first chipset that supports both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) network architectures for 5G. With non-standalone, 5G network architecture is built on top of legacy 4G LTE networks, whereas standalone 5G, as the name implies, will have its own independent architecture. Balong 5000 can flexibly meet different user and carrier requirements for connecting devices throughout different stages of 5G development.

    It is the world’s first multi-mode chipset that supports Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications, providing low-latency and highly reliable solutions for connected vehicles. Huawei’s 5G smartphones powered by Balong 5000 will be released at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

    According to the OEM, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro has achieved a high speed of 3.2 Gbps in live network tests.

    Powered by Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro supports both 4G and 5G wireless connections. On a 5G network, a 1-GB HD video clip can be downloaded within three seconds, and 8K video can be streamed smoothly without lag. This sets a new benchmark for home CPEs. In addition to homes, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro can also be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for super-fast broadband access.

    Adopting new Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro delivers speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps. It is the first 5G CPE that supports Huawei HiLink protocols, bringing smart homes into the 5G era.

    As a 5G pioneer, Huawei began research and development in 5G as early as 2009, and is currently the industry’s only vendor that can provide end-to-end 5G systems. Huawei has more than 5,700 engineers dedicated to 5G research and development, including over 500 5G experts. In total, Huawei has established 11 joint innovation centers for 5G solutions worldwide.

    5G to grow mobile cutomers, revenue

    5G mobile subscription uptake will be much faster than 4G/LTE technology, with 1.5 billion subscriptions expected by 2024, according to Ericsson.

    Its Vice President and Head of Marketing and Communications for Middle East and Africa (MEA),  Fida Kibbi, spoke during a media visit to Ericsson’s Experience Centre in Santa Clara, California, United States (US)

    She said while adoption of 4G subscriptions was very fast, the road to 5G will reach unprecedented levels. Out of the total of 8.9 billion subscriptions expected by 2024, she said, 17 per cent will be 5G.

    “5G is happening and is now a reality globally. For example, in the US, Verizon has launched 5G on fixed wireless access Internet-to-the-home, so in this case it is becoming a reality. All four of the major US operators have already announced commercial deployment of 5G networks,” she said.

    She beleives 5G deployment in the MEA is also becoming a reality in some parts but is still an exploration in many areas of the region.

    “Middle East and Africa is a very dynamic and diverse market. One cannot look at the region as they would the US, Europe or Latin America. MEA has advanced markets, which are those markets in the Gulf region, and it also has the optimisation market, which include countries like Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and South Africa. These markets are talking about data monetisation, and cost-efficiency is very important.

    “As 5G becomes a reality for the Middle East and Africa region, it will pick up even more, and in 2019 we expect to announce many commercial deployments,” she said.

    Last month, Rain revealed its desire to make South Africa one of the first five countries globally to launch 5G, with plans for a commercial 5G service to be live early next year.

    According to Kibbi, in a recent study, conducted by Ericsson’s Consumer Lab Department, consumers revealed they are definitely willing to pay for 5G provided it delivers high-speed data, low latency and capacity coverage. “76 per cent of consumers surveyed for this study said they want 5G and 44 per cent of them said they are willing to pay.”

    Explaining the commercial success in 5G deployment, she said Ericsson found next-generation technology promises to bring 36 per cent additional revenue potential for operators in MEA.