Zimbabwe & Ethiopia Are The Newest African Countries On The 5G Block
At the business end of February, unusual news broke when Zimbabwe, a lower-middle-income Southern African country, welcomed a commercial launch of fifth-generation internet. Strive Masiwaya’s Econet, the largest mobile telecommunications operator in the country, joined hands with Sweden’s Ericsson to roll out the connectivity service in Harare—the nation’s capital and largest city.
The said superfast broadband technology was a means for the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed telco to offer new opportunities to its business customers and traditional consumers, providing fixed wireless access (FWA) for residences, schools and [small] enterprise buildings while helping the economy broaden access to financial services in both Zimbabwean ruralities and urbanities.
Generally, the 5G launch boosted Econet’s capacity and user experience by up to 10 times, a means through which Ericsson would facilitate a smooth transition away from 3 and 4G networks.
More recently, Econet has expanded the connectivity network to the southern parts of Zimbabwe, creating another launch in Bulawayo—the country’s second-largest city. The company said the expansion aligns with its efforts to develop the Zimbabwean economy by creating an avenue for the activation of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics.
Meanwhile, Liquid Home Zimbabwe, which was formerly known as ZOL Zimbabwe, has disclosed its intentions to join the race, as the telco awaits approval for telecoms regulators.
However, Zimbabwe is not the only country in the continent that recently came on board the 5G train. In the East African jurisdiction, state-owned Ethio Telecom—the country’s first and largest mobile network operator—has rolled out the service. The move makes Ethiopia the eighth country in Sub-Saharan Africa [after South Africa, Seychelles, Togo, Kenya, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Botswana] to have a commercially operational 5G infrastructure.
By launching the network in the low-middle-income nation, Ethio Telecom is, interestingly, one step ahead of a competition which only just begun. After decades of market monopoly, Ethiopia’s telecoms sector now has a second player, Safaricom Ethiopia—a global consortium that includes Kenya’s largest telco, Safaricom, and South Africa’s Vodacom Group. Noteworthily, both involved telcos have launched 5G networks in their home markets [Kenya and South Africa].
For now, the coverage is available in select places in Addis Ababa, the nation’s capital, largest city and commercial hub. According to Ethio Telecom, it will have up to 150 5G sites within and beyond “Finfinne.” The operator, which is collaborating with China’s Huawei Technologies for the project, currently has approximately 64 million mobile subscribers across the country. With well over 150 million people, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa.
Despite these piecemeal developments, it is agreeable that Africa, in generality, remains a long way off from full-scale 5G adoption. In the countries that have started the ball rolling, it is obviously not widely available. Most of the continent is yet in the 4G era, while a handful is testing use cases for the next generation.
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