CAPE TOWN - On the first day of AfricaCom,the biggest gathering of telecommunications companies in Cape Town, the South African mobile operator MTN, together with Huawei launched their C-band 5G trial as part of the operator’s network evolution plan towards 5G.
MTN and Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a Joint 5G Innovation Program to assess and work on new technologies such as 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Through this innovation program, MTN SA will develop use cases that will have a social impact, including smart city and education solutions driven by 5G and AI technologies.
The media launch demonstrated use cases including Cloud VR gaming, a robotic arm guessing platform, and augmented reality (AR) eyeglasses - demonstrating facial recognition.
These solutions showed a glimpse of the future that 5G may bring to the South African digital eco-system.
"MTN is very pleased to launch the 5G C-band trial in South Africa," said MTN CTO Giovanni Chiarelli.
"This trial demonstrates the capability of this new technology while giving customers a glimpse of what the future holds, showcasing the next generation of applications for consumer and enterprise customers. MTN will further co-operate with Huawei to accelerate commercial 5G deployment.
Dean Yu, Huawei Carrier Business VP for Southern Africa added that , ‘5G is at the stage of large-scale deployment in 2019 globally. In 5G era, more "Cloud Native" services will appear. With the redefinition of the smart clients, broad pipes, and Cloud applications, devices can be significantly simplified and more capabilities can be mapped from clouds to devices. Huawei will keep supporting MTN through its challenges and requirements, providing the most innovative product and solution for MTN, bringing the ultimate experience to MTN subscribers.’
MTN partnership with Huawei will enable MTN to serve its subscribers with advanced technologies of the future.Huawei is leading the 5G rollout globally, with more than 60 commercial contracts and shipment of 400 000 plus base stations.
Both Huawei and MTN emphasised their commitment to 5G collaboration in order to bring South African businesses and consumers better technologies.