5G
MTN to Launch OpenRAN Network in Africa
MTN Group is leveraging its expansive footprint across Africa to test and ultimately deploy OpenRAN – an innovative technology that will enable it to launch new services more quickly, cost-effectively and seamlessly, supporting future strategies in line with the company’s Ambition 2025: Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. MTN plans to modernise its radio access networks using OpenRAN. This is in line with one of five vital enablers of MTN’s strategy: to build technology platforms that the company believes are second to none, thereby allowing for the rapid expansion of 4G and 5G population coverage across its markets. With up-to-date technology, MTN expects a reduction in its power consumption and associated carbon emissions. This, in turn, supports its plans to decarbonise its...
Offline Device Locking: Protect Your Financed Devices against Non-payment with NuovoPay
Sourced from Travellers With the advent of 4G technology and the promising 5G technology, smartphones have offered people a gateway to enter the digital economy and get socio-economic benefits. According to Statista, in 2020 global smartphone unit sales for end-users were 1.38 billion. This shows a strong demand for smartphones, which is largely driven by consumers from developed countries. The consumer in developed countries has easy access to smartphone finance, affordable loans, alternative forms of credit scoring, etc. This necessarily does not hold true for certain emerging markets such as Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. According to Newzoo Global Mobile Market Report 2018, Smartphone penetration in South Africa was 35.5%, Vietnam was 37.7%, Indonesia was 27.4% as compared to 83% an...
How to Build a Secure 5G Ecosystem
Powered by the convergence of 5G and industry 4.0, the smart enterprise of the future is now here. The critical performance boost of 5G enables critical smart systems to share and respond to information faster than ever, permitting industrial enterprises to digitise and automate their infrastructures with confidence. 5G offers a unique and valuable set of capabilities that, unlike any previous or current mobile technology, enable and expand the implementation of transformative technologies for organisations, including industrial enterprises. The value of 5G encompasses enhanced bandwidth, ultra-high reliability, low latency, high positioning precision, and native support for machine communications that organisations across a wide range of verticals, including manufacturing, logis...
Why South Africa Needs Fibre to Drive 5G Connectivity
5G is paving the way forward for the connectivity that digital technologies increasingly require, but it offers a lot more than just unprecedented mobile data connection speeds. 5G is capable of handling many more connected devices, has ten times lower latency than 4G, and enables ‘network slicing’ which can prioritise specific users, services, or devices during times of network overload. With all these benefits, it’s no surprise that many people have the misconception that 5G will ultimately replace fibre, when in fact 5G without fibre would not exist. The 5G mobile network is currently being rolled out in South Africa and will still take a few years to become widely available. Even then, 5G networks will not eventually replace fibre optic networks but rather complement them by offering m...
What could 5G mean for South Africa?
The rollout of 5G in South Africa’s urban centres is likely to be one of the most significant technology events of 2021. Where 3G and 4G LTE technology provided increased speeds compared to their predecessors, 5G will establish an entirely new innovation platform upon which many of the technologies and day-to-day conveniences of the future will be built. It’s less of an iteration on previous technologies and more of a total digital transformation in how we connect to virtual and physical worlds. The number of connected devices will grow exponentially, linking previously static infrastructure – cars, clothes, parking meters – to a smart network that constantly generates and processes vast amounts of data. In line with this, the 5G services market is expected to grow at an astronomical rate,...
Will Technology Reinvent ‘the New Normal’ in 2021?
2020 can only be described as an unpredictable year, and one that brought with it some of the most dramatic shifts we’ve seen in the way we live and work. In a year of uncertainty, it’s safe to say that technology was the one constant – the platform that transformed the fundamentals of commerce, healthcare, education and financial services across the world. Disruption is a process that plays out over time; sometimes slowly, but completely and the pandemic proved this to be true. It showed that it’s imperative for organisations to invest in a holistic and strategic approach to respond to the pace of disruption. This investment calls for the convergence of technologies, to connect, collaborate and create new services that will ultimately help weather disruption. As we head into 2021, the MER...
5 Trends Shaping the Technology Industry in 2021
2020 was a disruptive year for the tech industry – accelerating developments that may have taken 3 to 5 years to implement to common use almost overnight. Given these developments, here are five tech industry trends we’ll see within the next 11 months: WFH culture sets off a renewed focus on smart collaboration and office set-up of the future As companies examine the functionality of the workplace, we’ll start to see more traditional office workspaces become periodic collaboration hubs, while home offices become the day-to-day workplace. The office will likely transform from many desks, conference rooms and shared amenities to a cooperative business centre supporting specific project-based priorities on an ongoing basis. As a result, employers will need to equip their full workforce with t...
Top 5 Telephony Trends to Expect in 2021
2020 highlighted the importance of secure, reliable communications networks. Following a revealing year that made digital communication channels and remote working the norm, there are a few tech trends that are likely to play out over the foreseeable future. With this in mind, Nic Laschinger, CTO of Euphoria Telecom, has shared five telephony trends to expect in 2021: 1. Farewell to the landline As the world embraces digital communication systems, the traditional landline is being left behind. Telkom’s recent discontinuation of its copper line-based ADSL service is yet another strong indicator that South Africa is moving more towards higher bandwidth, more reliable connectivity solutions. In South Africa, between 20 and 22 million people in South Africa use smartphones. And an ever-increas...
5 Digital Transformation Predictions for 2021
Although 2020 might have been a year that no one could have predicted, shrouded with uncertainty, technology was the one constant. Helping businesses become more agile and connected with communities in different ways, it provided an essential part of our human and business adaptations to the so-called ‘new normal’. In 2021, technology will continue to provide a path to our economic recovery – and channel partners will play a key role in guiding our progress. They must advocate for the technological transformations that will help businesses to do more than simply survive, but to thrive. And there’s plenty for them to talk about. Here are five tech heroes to watch in the coming year, that will rock the channel and bolster business: 1. Hybrid cloud hype: understanding the full channel opportu...
Why Data is Key in the Era of 5G
Convergence is nothing new, however as technology evolves this is being taken to unprecedented levels. The cloud, the endpoint, the edge and now 5G are converging and changing the way we collaborate, connect and communicate. However, for telcos and operators, adapting to a 5G world can be a challenge. Not only does it involve new infrastructure, but it also means adapting business models, embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) and potentially developing entirely new revenue streams. At the heart of the ability to leverage 5G effectively lies data, which must be portable, protected and above all available for analysis. Data is the key to unlocking the value of 5G for operators. The 5G opportunity /* custom css */ .tdi_3_90d.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_9...
SIM-based Locking: How Telcos Can Reinvent Their Device Financing with NuovoPay
Device financing has been a catalyst in increasing the penetration of smartphones across developed countries. Several telecom carriers have taken the plunge into device financing in recent times, also bringing into focus the previously underserved markets of smartphone financing- in the African, LATAM and APAC regions. Traditionally, the smartphone financing model, especially the one that comes pre-bundled with a telecom service is a win-win for both the consumer as well as the telecom companies. With device financing, individual consumers as well as businesses can leverage the latest technology at their disposal, have an easy upgrade, pay lower total upfront costs and get a telecom service, with voice and data packages. For telecom carriers, smartphone financing enables tapping into...
