< PreviousGETTING BEHIND AI Tadhg O’Donovan, associate head of school, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus looks at the role of AI, robotics AI has become a priority across all industries. Please give examples of how AI is causing a shift in industry? Many organisations across the region see the potential that Robotics and AI have in delivering efficiency and accuracy. The first organisations to deploy AI systems across the board will be at a competitive advan- tage, as its acceleration will break the bar- riers of what was perceived impossible in the past. An analysis conducted by the In- ternational Data Corporation (IDC) has es- timated a projection of 37.5 million in 2017 to over $100 million by 2021 to be spent on AI in the Middle East and Africa, which sig- nifies a growth rate of 32 per cent a year. In recent years we have seen a demand for AI in financial services and high-tech sectors which have successfully implemented new technology alongside business strategy. For example, a notable sector that has seen recent change as a result of AI is logistics, according to Accenture, the impact of AI technologies on business will boost labour productivity by up to 40 per cent. The invention of ‘the hive’ (also known as ‘the grid’ or ‘the machine’) is an example of an automated intelligent warehouse, fully capable of fulfilling operational capacity to deliver orders. In addition, we have seen a shift in consumer services as applications empow- ered by AI respond to human interaction. Chabot’s which act like customer care support, ensure that businesses communi- cate with clients and consumers efficiently and accurately. These functions are seen throughout the UAE and transform the way enterprisers attend to user requests. Data is key to the Smart Dubai initiative, with the launch of projects such as the Dubai Blockchain Strat- egy to implement the latest blockchain tech- nologies within the city structure.” Tadhg O’Donovan, associate head of School, School of Engi- neering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-University Dubai Campus The future of AI is currently in its development phase, what are signifi- cant AI solutions needed in the UAE? In recent years Dubai strategically focused on AI by appointing a State Minister for Artificial Intelligence. Dubai’s Ministry of Data is poised to turn the city into one of the most technologically advanced in the world. With data forming the very foundation of which Dubai’s Smart City enterprise is built, government-initiated technology programmes are facilitating the emergence of Smart Sustainable Cities throughout the UAE and the GCC region. Data is key to the Smart Dubai initiative, with the launch of projects such as the Dubai Blockchain Strategy to implement the latest blockchain technologies within the city structure. This will aim to move 50 per cent of all government transactions on to the blockchain by 2021, ensuring that applicable processes become digitalised for citizens with the vision to make the emirate paperless and environmentally friendly. In addition, to ensure that pro- cesses between government and financial procedures go through automation in order to form transparency in financial services without human intervention. With these technologies, the UAE and GCC region will boost government perfor- mance at all levels and generate new tech- nologies that will transform the UAE into a revolutionary Smart City. For instance, the UAE saw pivotal moments in improving the healthcare industry through automation in 2017 and the first 3D-printed prosthetic leg developed in the region was revealed at the 2017 Arab Health Forum. According to the Dubai Health Care Authority Guide 2018-25, 3D printing will remain a dynamic and responsive solution to medical needs in addition to reducing costs of prosthetics in the region. 20www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW TADHG O’DONOVAN CommsMEA January 2020 In order to ensure that we prepare the future generation to leverage the power of AI, we must address the emergence of new technologies at an educational level.” Tadhg O’Donovan, associate head of School, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-University Dubai Campus What are some of the challenges unique in this region that can be solved through AI? The demand for emerging technology is due to the result of international aware- ness that AI is a sustainable and accurate solution to environmental and economic challenges. The UAE is making a compel- ling case for AI implementation, and many sectors are Ai-Centralised. The initiative with new emerging technology is to es- sentially catalyse the well-being and living standards of the region’s citizens, with AI at the forefront solving several environmen- tal issues. In the UAE and across the region, there are frameworks which will be critical in the resolution of issues such as ocean health, where the UAE’s first Global Robotics Challenge saw students tackle the issue on AI powered robots to clean up the ocean’s pollutants in the UAE. Furthermore, the Intelligence Forum 2019 saw discussions on systems installed in the ocean to assess salinity and temperature levels. The revolution of these new technologies will also facilitate the removal of harmful pesticides and fertilisers in farming, as well as technology-based food production aiming to make the UAE one of the world’s most food-secure countries by 2021 ac- cording to the UAE National Food Security Strategy. One of the goals in the UAE is to drive Smart cities, what is the role of Robotics and AI in driving Smart City solutions in the UAE? Smart cities deal with many aspects across ‘Smart Life’ including health, education, transport, energy and communications. Smart Life not only offers innovation to the region, but it offers a strong economic gain. The Smart City initiative is driven on innovation and sustainability, the pioneer- ing use of robotics for public services is balanced with the focal point of citizen and visitor happiness. According to Deloitte, the evolution of Smart City 2.0 will en- hance citizens’ experience as well as city decision-making with the use of technology and design. The solution to the various aspects around Smart Cities is to create a digital metropolitan environment that provides its citizens with technological interaction and convenience. Dubai in particular is at the forefront with this, pioneering the usage of robotics for its citizens whilst creating a focus on sustainability for the greater good. In particular, 2017 saw the world’s first smart police service station in Dubai where citizens can have their needs addressed 24 hours a day with limited manpower. What research projects in education are needed in order help create an active community in AI and Robotics in the UAE? In order to ensure that we prepare the future generation to leverage the power of AI, we must address the emergence of new technologies at an educational level. Higher education institutions are seen to be focusing their courses and training programmes in knowledge directly associ- ated with AI. Many of these courses include data analyt- ics and programming as well as STEM subjects with focus on building creatively and sustainably. The rising role of AI and robotics looks to future generations to hone skills and knowledge applicable to many fields. The UAE in particular has created a revolutionary agenda to nurture the understanding of the future by setting up the regions first AI camp as an example of enhancing the knowledge of future genera- tions. New degree programmes that bridge traditional disciplines of mechanical, elec- trical, electronic, computer engineering and computer science are required to prepare the graduate engineers to leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence to drive innovation for the benefit of society. At Heriot-Watt University, we have recently launched a degree programme in robotics, autonomous and interactive systems for this purpose, building on the long-established expertise of the HWU through its participation in the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. The theme running throughout the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics is Safe Interaction, which is broken down into the following four themes: • Physical Interactions deals with the interaction between the robot and the environment and includes studies in control, actuation, compliance, sensing, mapping, planning, embodiments, and swarms. • People Interactions deals with interac- tions between robots and humans in a variety of setting and applications and includes studies in human-robot interac- tion, affective robotics, smart spaces, human-robot teaming, collaborative decision-making, cobots, multimodal interfaces. • Self-Interactions deals with introspec- tion for condition monitoring, prognosis, explainable AI, certification, verification, safety, security, multi-agent interactions. • Interaction Enablers deals with core technologies for Robotics and Autono- mous systems and includes studies in vision, embedded and parallel comput- ing, novel and soft fabrication methods, optimisation, (transparent) machine learning, deep reinforcement learning and other AI techniques inc. natural language processing (NLP). 21www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW TADHG O’DONOVAN CommsMEA January 2020 MANAGING ICT COMPLEXITY Stephane Pommereau, business development director for Middle East, Africa & Indirect, Enterprise Services, Orange Business Services chats to COMMS MEA on MSI What is driving the increasing com- plexity of enterprise ICT? There are currently two main drivers of enterprise ICT complexity. As elsewhere, the region is facing the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation and the disruption and complexity of ‘tech sprawl’. Enterprises increasingly want access to more data, more technology, with the associated additional services, vendors and contracts. The current norm is 15 (or more) service providers for enterprises and this will increase as cloud and digital services grow. Around 50 per cent of IT employee time is wasted on root cause analysis (and the average hourly cost of an infrastructure failure is $100,000). The risk is that IT ‘firefighting’ dominates the CIO and distracts from service alignment and technology integration. The second driver is Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). How can MSI help enterprises man- age ICT complexity? There has been a clear market need to manage service providers on behalf of cus- tomers for some time. Starting with WAN regionalisation, it became more important as the IT infrastructure of large multina- tionals became more complex. The shift towards SD-WAN and virtualisation was the next step in the evolution of this grow- ing complexity. MSI is structured with well-defined pro- cesses around infrastructure management, contract management, service delivery management and governance, and each im- plementation should be customised based on customer needs. Customer pain points are defined with the customer during the bid phase, and then a model proposed to address these operational problems. We have developed the JOA (Joint Opportuni- ty Assessment) concept to determine ITSM strategy, assess customer pain points, identify the root causes and solutions, and design the MSI model that will generate the best ROI for the customer by address- ing both OPEX reduction/optimisation and improved customer experience. MSI usu- ally covers several technology stacks like WAN, LAN, SDWAN, Telephony, Security, for example, which are delivered by differ- ent service providers. Once the strategy is determined, we build a service management model using service desk and end-to-end monitor- ing solutions to ensure the end-to-end management of the customer’s infrastruc- ture. Contract management ensures that all service providers deliver according to their contracts. Visibility on all contracted services from a single point is ensured by implementing a unified service catalogue and a service delivery management model. The solution always includes a flexible governance model based on the customer’s needs. Are there any hotspots or use cases? There are a number of hot sectors undergo- ing aggressive digital business transforma- tions, from banking and finance to retail Stephane Pommereau, business development director for Middle East, Africa & Indirect, Enterprise Services, Orange Business Services. 22www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES CommsMEA January 2020 MSI is structured with well-defined processes around infrastructure management, contract man- agement, service delivery management and gover- nance, and each implementation should be cus- tomised based on customer needs.” Stephane Pommereau, business development director for Middle East, Africa & Indirect, Enterprise Services, Orange Business Services and transport & logistics. One of the trig- gers for considering MSI is M&A activity, and there has been a rise in regional activ- ity. Ultimately, M&A transactions generally lead to scale integration projects, when operations, processes and systems are com- bined to deliver the desired benefits. This includes the ICT estate and the CIO faces an immediate challenge of identifying the new, combined ICT estate, partners, sup- pliers and service providers, and managing the potential for tech sprawl, at whatever point of their digital transformation jour- neys the two parties may have reached. To illustrate actual customer use cases, our MSI solution was able to increase service availability for a customer by doing a thorough root cause analysis, proposing remediation scenarios and introducing service improvement plans with the service providers. In another case we used MSI to rationalise the customer’s resources. As a result, the customer was able to focus on business projects, rather than infrastruc- ture management. Thanks to this we have reduced the number of incidents by almost 30% only 8 months after implementation. When should MSI be considered? Outsourcing the multi-sourcing service integrator role is a critical decision for any organisation considering delegating vendor management to a third party. Many of our customer’s businesses require a flexible model for frequent Merge & Acquisition activity, and MSI enables smooth on-boarding of new service provid- ers and managing several ITSM environ- ments through a managed transformation process. MSI support starts from the transfor- mation strategy definition that best fits the customer business KPIs, through to the implementation of a dedicated service management model that will provide the customer with the necessary flexibil- ity, end-user satisfaction and of course improved OPEX model to address the changing technology requirements in a controlled and efficient manner. For example, MSI is a logical way for a company to manage the SD-WAN, because it enables a service integrator to take charge of performance measurement, contract management and control. MSI is designed to orchestrate the IT procedures and make processes easier and more effec- tive, even as migrating from legacy WAN solutions to SD-WAN creates a new source of complexity in enterprises’ technological decisions and in supplier management. IDC believes that as SD-WAN gains trac- tion, MSI will become mandatory in the vast majority of complex WAN deals. What should a company look for when selecting an MSI provider? For more than a decade, the enterprise IT environment has been growing more com- plex with the rise of new hybrid technolo- gies and services, from a growing number of suppliers. Hybrid networks – including software defined networks (SDN) and SD- WAN – are increasingly being adopted to manage access to cloud services and deal with growing data traffic volumes. In most cases, hybrid infrastructures rely on using many local internet service providers. According to the Gartner MSI market trends study, MSI vendor selection factors vary across industries but the four most important selection criteria are vision and innovation, simplicity of the business model, geographical reach, and a strategic partnership approach across industries. Gartner concludes that buying trends show that MSI-SIAM technology and service providers should tailor their value proposi- tions and go-to-market strategies depend- ing on the industry they are addressing. What are the MSI benefits? MSI addresses the key challenges facing the CIO and offers CIOs a solution that allows them to achieve seamless govern- ance, unification, standardisation and end to end management of their services. It provides a single point of ownership, 24/7 proactive monitoring, technical service desk, Level 2/3, 3rd party coordination, on-site and consulting, automation of incident reporting, in-depth performance & capacity trending reports, and a service catalogue to ease end user efforts. Our MSI solution offers consulting services, govern- ance services, infrastructure management, vendor management (contract, relation- ship, performance) and service broker- age - along with average savings of 13% on service provider costs. What are the critical success factors for successful adoption of MSI? According to Gartner, technology and service providers focused on MSI-SIAM for managed communication services across industries must deploy geographical strategies to reach multinational clients by doing a proper client segmentation in the countries where potential clients operate, reaching partnerships with local service providers in those countries. They must also define a framework to standardise projects; strengthen MSI-SI- AM governance models by providing more transparency to clients in future contracts defining clear responsibilities, processes and resource allocation in the vendor and client side; and develop a phased strategy for evolving the MSI-SIAM portfolio by leveraging mobile and network manage- ment capabilities to build up additional services on top of them. The main challenges organisations are related to hidden costs and activities. t s I d im 23www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES CommsMEA January 2020 SOUTH AFRICA’S FIRST EVER BLOCKCHAIN-BASED BLOCKCHAIN-BASED PROPERTY PROPERTY REGISTER PILOT The pilot study area consists of almost 1,000 properties located in four sites in Makhaza, Khayelitsha The Centre for Affordable Hous- ing Finance in Africa (CAHF), research consultancy 71point4, and Seso Global have partnered to develop South Africa’s first blockchain- based property register. The pilot study area consists of almost 1,000 properties located in four sites in Makhaza, Khayelit- sha. All the properties are Government subsidised properties that have not yet been registered on Deeds Registry. According to Daniel Bloch, the CEO of Seso Global, a blockchain property registry company, this will be the first working example of a blockchain-based property registry in South Africa. Aside from creat- ing an immutable record of who owns which house, the Seso platform facilitates and records transactions such as sales and transfers out of deceased estates and integrates with third parties who facilitate transactions, including mortgage lenders. For the time being, property owners will record these transactions at the Transac- tion Support Centre, a walk-in housing advice office created by CAHF and 71point4 located in the area. But, over time, we will record transactions through the Seso app. The benefit of the blockchain solution is that it allows the data to be stored in a decentralised, secure database that can be updated without any loss of historic data. This means there is a secure, back-to-back record of all transactions that is completely tamper-poof. Eventually the vision would be to integrate this record into the Deeds Registry when other impediments to trans- fer have been removed. South Africa has a serious titling problem. According to Kecia Rust, the CEO of CAHF, the government has built over three million RDP houses since democracy. But, CAHF’s analysis of deeds office data indicates that only 1.9 million of these properties have been registered. The National Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation (NDHSWS) estimates that the title deed backlog for RDP properties built prior to 2014 currently stands at 511,752. These properties were given to beneficiaries, but no title deeds were registered and handed over. At the same time, there is a backlog of 351,470 title deeds on newer properties. Registering these properties so long after they were built and handed over to subsidy beneficiaries is an administra- tively complex task. In some cases, original subsidy beneficiaries are no longer living in the properties. Some beneficiaries might have passed away, some might have tenants in their properties while others have sold their houses informally. “To create a register of property owners we first had to go door to door to find out who lives in each property and to establish how they came to be there,” said Iliana Melzer, founder and lead consultant at 71point4. “We hired a team of 17 enumera- tors and trained them to collect informa- tion and capture supporting documents. Thankfully we can leverage smart phone to collect the data, but it still requires a significant effort. It took us two months to cover these areas.” But, the effort is well worth it. Properties in the area sell for over R200, 000 infor- mally; and would sell for more if they were listed on a trusted registry and were bank- able. This would enable buyers to obtain mortgage finance and create affordability. Without access to mortgages, buyers have to pay cash for a house, or use an expensive unsecured loan. There are also significant benefits to the City of Cape Town of being able to access an accurate and up-to-date Iliana Melzer, founder and lead consultant at 71point4 and Daniel Bloch, the CEO of Seso Global. 24www.commsmea.com CASE STUDY CAPE TOWN CommsMEA January 2020 record of property ownership. Without it, the City cannot collect revenue from households in the area who are not indi- gent nor can City departments facilitate building plan approvals. NEXT STEPS In many cases in the pilot areas, the origi- nal beneficiary is still living in the property. “We hope that these properties can be registered in the deeds registry within a few months, and we are working closely with the City of Cape Town to facilitate that,” said Melzer. “Where the beneficiary no longer lives in the property, we are in the process of tracing the beneficiary to confirm information we have gathered on who owns the property. We will also be working closely with the City on a resolu- tion process where ownership is disputed. We will also be using Seso’s platform to manage other client service requests that come to the Transaction Support Cen- tre from all over Cape Town,” said Rust. “This is important across the market, but particularly in entry level segments of the market where existing mechanisms are simply too costly.” CAHF, Seso Global and 71point4 have a working agreement to extend this pilot into other areas and use cases. There are hundreds of thousands of RDP proper- ties around the country where no primary transfer has taken place. In addition, in many areas where title deeds were issued, property owners have transacted infor- mally, which means there is no longer an accurate record of ownership at the deeds registry. Blockchain-based solutions can help there too. Blockchain can also enable households who live in informal settlements and rural areas to record and maintain land records and secure their rights. “We are very pleased with the pilot results. We think the solution we have de- veloped is scalable, and replicable,” noted Bloch, CEO of Seso Global. That does not mean it is easy but, said Melzer: “Blockchain technology together with the potential value that can be un- locked makes it worthwhile.” - Source APO Group THE PARTNERS The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) is a not-for-profit company with a vision for an enabled affordable housing finance system in countries throughout Africa, where governments, business, and advocates work together to provide a wide range of housing options accessible to all. CAHF’s mission is to make Africa’s housing finance markets work, with special attention on access to housing finance for the poor. CAHF pursues this mission through the dissemination of research and market intelligence, supporting cross-sector collaborations and a market-based approach. The overall goal of CAHF’s work is to see an increase of investment in affordable housing and housing finance throughout Africa: more players and better products, with a specific focus on the poor. 71point4 is a Cape Town based strategic research consultancy specialising in consumer- focused, data-driven research in potentially transformative sectors. This includes housing, financial services and healthcare. The team at 71point4 uses a wide array of research methodologies and data sources ranging from big data to small, qualitative data to help our clients understand their customers and markets better. Seso Global, a fintech firm, is building a trusted real estate market using blockchain technology to enable secured lending in emerging economies, where centralised land registry data can be unreliable. The Transaction Support Centre is pilot action-research initiative established by CAHF and 71point4 to support secure tenure in low-income property markets. The TSC provides hands-on assistance and advice to individuals looking to transact through formal processes. At the same time the TSC documents the progress of transactions to highlight potential policy, legislative and administrative issues for attention. The physical advice office is based in the Desmond Tutu Sport Recreation Hall in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, Cape Town and has been operational since July 2018. The blockchain pilot study featured 1,000 homes across Makhaza and Khayelitsha. 25www.commsmea.com CASE STUDY CAPE TOWN CommsMEA January 2020 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE 5G REVOLUTION Telecoms providers look at where South Africa is along its 5G journey, and the challenges and benefits of 5G roll out in the rainbow nation 5G will usher in a new era for South African connectivity, with higher data delivery speeds, higher bandwidth, and huge possibilities for both the population and South Africa’s businesses. 5G has only very recently arrived in South Africa, to a handful of subscribers. Rain, a new MNO, launched a 5G network on 10 November in Johan- nesburg, and Tshwane – the first 5G network to go live in South Africa. How- ever, according to Clémentine Fournier, Regional Vice President, Africa, BICS, it’s a data-only network and is currently only available in select areas to a select group of existing Rain customers. The rest of the South African MNOS are waiting for the government to award spectrum licences, with a spectrum auction expected to place in 2020. “If the 5G network doesn’t have compre- hensive coverage, users will be frustrated that they can’t always get the speeds they expect or coverage everywhere. So, this 26www.commsmea.com COUNTRY FOCUS SOUTH AFRICA CommsMEA January 2020 SA MNOs have al- ready spent significant amounts of money de- ploying 2G, and 3G to 4G and are only just realising those investments. So, for South Africa to jump directly into 5G with very little demand right now, it would in our opinion, be a big financial mistake for MNOs.” Eugina Jordan, VP marketing, Parallel Wireless providers in the region – a constant tech- nology race between competitors, where mobile networks are always looking for ways to make themselves relevant in the eyes of their customers and offering 5G, is the flavour of the hour. “SA MNOs have already spent signifi- cant amounts of money deploying 2G, and 3G to 4G and are only just realising those investments. So, for South Africa to jump directly into 5G with very little demand right now, it would in our opinion, be a big financial mistake for MNOs. They need to optimise their previous G investments first, especially 4G, as those deployments were delayed due to the ability of end users to pay more for 4G services. Only now, are MNOs starting to realise 4G ROI – and that is why 4G will become a leading tech- nology in Africa in years to come, as more users get access to 4G devices,” she stated. Jordan noted that with the fierce competition in the telecom market, telcos have seen their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) continuously falling. This is even lower in rural areas. Cou- pled with low ARPU, the cost of setting up and managing a network in rural areas is also higher. Low population density, and difficult terrain, further add to the challenges of providing a robust communications net- work in the country’s hinterland. “Typically, the attitude towards rural expansion is that people in those areas need the basic services first, which may then be upgraded later depending on the returns, to provide better technologies. What it means is that telecom service providers would use the oldest generation technology available to expand in the ru- ral areas first, given the many infrastruc- tural gaps and difficult terrains in those areas,” she said. Other high value challenges include the cost of the infrastructure required to build a new network, the availability of spectrum and licenses, and the availabil- ity of 5G handsets, which are expensive, rendering them inaccessible for many. There’s also the problem of vision, ac- cording to Fournier: “Many MNOs don’t have a clear view on domestic 5G strate- gies, and there remains a lack of clarity about how to monetise the new technol- ogy. Most subscribers meanwhile see 5G merely as a technology upgrade that’ll give them faster internet access, browsing and download speed on their smartphones. So for them, it’s a natural evolution – in much the same way as 3G/4G was – and as such they’re not willing to pay a huge amount more. This makes it very difficult for mo- bile operators to establish robust business cases that deliver a return on their latest 5G investment.” brings us to the conclusion that while many networks are looking to get into the 5G space, investing too heavily into the technology too quickly, could result in a poor return on investment as 2G 3G and 4G are still prominent in Africa and those technologies are still being deployed and with investments being made,” said Eugina Jordan, vice president, marketing, Parallel Wireless. Rain network speeds vary, with a down- load speed of 500 Mbps and upload speeds hovering between 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps. 5G is so different from previous mo- bile generation for two very important reasons: it is dynamic, agile, distributed and open which allows MNOs, for the first time, to put forwards services and use cases for the business segment and thus create more value and generate more revenue; and it heavily relies on cloud technologies to provide the above. “In this emerging 5G environment with an expected surge in IoT devices, expected to top 4.1 billion by 2024, security will be paramount and cannot be allowed to slow networks down… In the past year, much of our work with major telcos in South Africa has focused on 5G strategy, SD WAN and Managed Services strategies. For most telcos, facing slower revenue growth from traditional products, secure value added services will be key to maintaining their growth,” said Doros Hadjizenonos, regional sales director at Fortinet. South African MNO, MTN has been trialling 5G connectivity with a fixed- wireless access site, and Fournier believes we are likely to see more tests in the next few months. THE CHALLENGES While 5G will no doubt be a revolution in the telecoms sphere in South Africa, there are a variety of fairly unique challenges that need to be overcome, including that of recent 4G roll outs, tackling legacy equip- ment, and the financial cost of yet another network upgrade. Jordan believes that the greatest chal- lenge is not the lack of fixed infrastructure outside of big cities, but rather competi- tion that is going on between the service 27www.commsmea.com COUNTRY FOCUS SOUTH AFRICA CommsMEA January 2020 4G was a fairly recent roll-out in South Africa, with MTN rolling out its 11,000th 4G LTE site in November 2018. MTN’s 4G coverage now extends to just over 90 per cent of the country. With roll-outs as recent as this, MNOs have not made their money back on the previous technology. This means that 5G is going to be a very costly endeavour for many of the country’s MNOs, and with the cost of 5G handsets being high, 5G may be a prohibitive tech- nology for everyone except the very few. However, the non-stand-alone version of 5G incorporates 5G radio, but re-uses the 4G core, meaning operators wanting to launch 5G must have first deployed 4G. But, in a stand-alone version, both core and radio access are new and need to be deployed, which is a lot more expensive for the operators. “Today, the region is yet to define the use cases that would justify an entirely new infrastructure. As such, if you’re deploying using 2G/3G, there’s no incen- tive to leapfrog to 5G stand-alone directly, without upgrading to 4G first,” said Clé- mentine Fournier, regional vice president, Africa, BICS. 5G-handsets are currently unaffordable for many subscribers in the region, and even globally. Even if the cost comes down, these handsets still need to support the right spectrum, which can differ from one network to the other and from one country to other – making African-wide 5G con- nectivity a true challenge. “I also expect that we’ll see new private 5G networks being deployed for specific use cases in which the transfer of real- time data is key; such as drones in the military, or equipment used in mining,” stated Fournier. Using a legacy hardware-centric approach to move networks to 4G will require additional 4G hardware and as- sociated investment into the equipment and associated infrastructure. As legacy 2G and 3G networks are not IP or cloud- native, this will result in managing two networks (2G and 4G). If operators adopt an OpenRAN cloud-native approach from Parallel Wireless, their architectures will become unified. So, upgrading is easy with just a software upgrade, so they can go from 2G to 4G or 5G when their subscrib- ers are ready. DRIVING ECONOMIC GROWTH The African continent poses a unique commercial and moral challenge for the telecom service providers who have several dilemmas to consider when choos- ing to upgrade, replace or install new infrastructure. According to Jordan, the majority of the African population still remain largely unconnected – Africa is one of the most under-penetrated regions in the world with the primary 2G network yet to reach Doros Hadjizenonos, regional sales director at Fortinet. Kamal Mokrani, global vice president, InfiNet Wireless. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE South African mobile telecoms faces challenges in that mobile data is still considered to be priced out of reach of much of the population; and power grid failures are resulting in mobile service interruptions and higher operating costs. South Africa’s Competition Commission recently issued a report finding that mobile data prices are too high despite recent price cuts, and urged reductions in the order of 30 – 50 per cent. Meanwhile ongoing problems in the state power utility, Eskom, have resulted in rolling blackouts that hamper mobile service delivery, a situation exacerbated by vandalism and battery theft from mobile towers, which has cost telcos such as MTN millions in recent months. While consumers call for further reduced data costs, new opportunities are presenting themselves with massive fibre roll-outs and the arrival of hyper-scale data centres in South Africa, which are set to boost enterprise cloud adoption across the board, and support government’s digital transformation and 4IR ambitions. But foundational for the success of cloud initiatives, e-government and 4IR development is security. Fortinet and its fast-growing partner community in South and Southern Africa are seeing growing concern about data security and cyber risk among organisations across the region, particularly as they plan cloud migrations to benefit from cost savings and efficiencies. Source: Doros Hadjizenonos, regional sales director at Fortinet 28www.commsmea.com COUNTRY FOCUS SOUTH AFRICA CommsMEA January 2020 over 110 million people (as per the GSMA 5G report). “The Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) continues to be low, the telecom service providers have a tough challenge list- ing out their priorities. Should they first expand their networks to far-flung areas that remain unconnected, focus on the existing networks – 2G and 3G-- and in doing so ignore the technological revolu- tion in the telecom sector in the form of 5G rollouts? No market can afford to overlook a technological progression that’s already sweeping the world with its immense pos- sibilities,” she stated. 5G will help bring broadband services to everyone in South Africa, connecting both businesses and crucial public institutions like schools, universities and hospitals. It will democratise access to fast, reli- able connectivity and will help bring new enterprises and investment to Africa. 5G will contribute to the digitalisation of the continent, allow new players to enter the market, and encourage and new disruptive business models based on the provision of data-centric services. So, for South African MNOs, 5G devel- opment has a strong value. 5G is a technology change that no service provider in any part of the world would like to miss out on, according to Doros Hadjizenonos, regional sales direc- tor at Fortinet. “Even if there are challenges in rolling out 5G services in Africa, as there are com- mercial as well as infrastructural issues related to the mass launch of 5G services, there is no denying that the technology would give a massive boost to the region, which has for a long time, faced govern- ance, social and economic issues. 5G technology, owing to its inherent features like high data speed, low latency, effec- tive use of spectrum, and better coverage, supports a larger number of devices and low energy consumption opens up a whole new raft of use cases. It enables service providers to offer a number of innovative services like augmented reality, virtual reality, remote surgery, autonomous transport systems, industrial automation and more. These 5G functionalities could help the governments in African countries plug the gaps in governance and deliver services like healthcare on a mass scale by side-stepping infrastructural challenges. 5G enables the authorities to provide ser- vices, including e-learning and e-health, through digital platforms, which is more cost effective and sustainable,” said Had- jizenonos. 5G in Africa will be a gradual evolution, said Fournier – the continent is hugely diverse, with its infrastructures, economies, geographies, politics and cultures differing wildly. Smartphone penetration is still only about 30 per cent, and those with access to mobile internet services is even smaller. The challenge is to straddle between the two priorities – focus on spreading the existing 2G and 3G networks or taking a technological leap by embracing 5G. The challenge is that it cannot ignore either of the choices. The mobile penetration in Af- rica remains at 44 per cent, which means over 600 million people in Africa are still without mobile connections. Internet penetration in Africa overall is still at 25-30 per cent. Moreover, even as other parts of the world have been plan- ning a transition from 4G to 5G services, 60 per cent of the users in Africa are still on the 2G network. Also, it is unlikely that the transition would happen directly from 2G to 4G, let alone 5G, according to Parallel Wireless. 3G services would most likely be the dominant technology in the region as GSMA Mobile Economy 2018 estimates that 62 per cent of the users would be using a 3G network and only 30 per cent would be using 4G network by 2025. The same GSMA report predicts that a mere three per cent would be using the 5G network by that time. Despite the underwhelming predictions, the possibili- ties and potentials of 5G make it difficult for the service providers to ignore it. Also note previous answers re low ARPU in rural and far-flung areas. The South African telecom sectors continues to register high YOY growth, as the demand for voice and data services increases. Recent regulations have not only encouraged the development of numerous city-wide fibre optic networks, but have also facilitated the launch of al- ternative connectivity services offered by a multitude of service providers, according to Kamal Mokrani, global vice president, InfiNet Wireless. While South Africa owns one of the most advanced infrastructures in the Af- rican continent, there is still a clear need for improvement in penetration of the internet and mobile services into some of the more rural parts of the country. Wide-spread connectivity is a clear target, with an increased interest in the mobile/wireless connectivity over the fixed solutions. The last key aspect, is the cost of data services. It is a challenge for operators to lower the costs of the services they provide, and it is creating an increasingly competitive market; allowing new players in the market to develop new solutions. wireless and broadband connectivity. Many MNOs don’t have a clear view on domestic 5G strategies, and there remains a lack of clarity about how to monetise the new technology.” Clémentine Fournier, regional vice president, Africa, BICS 29www.commsmea.com COUNTRY FOCUS SOUTH AFRICA CommsMEA January 2020 Next >