The sixth edition of the ‘Sub-Sahara Spectrum Management Conference’ will kick off this week with regulators, experts and other industry players looking for the African common stand on spectrum management.
Huawei made this known in a statement on Monday.
According to the tech firm, as more and more Africans come online, spectrum management will be critical to ensuring consistent, affordable and equitable Internet access.
It said, “Across the region, approximately 800 million people are not connected to the mobile Internet. Some 520 million can access the mobile Internet but find it difficult because of factors such as smartphone penetration and lack of skills, while 270 million cannot access the mobile Internet because they don’t have the requisite coverage. Across the region, less than half of the population is covered by 4G mobile broadband.”
The firm added that achieving consensus on spectrum management would play a major role in addressing those shortfalls.
Speaking on the development, the Director, International Telecommunication Union’s Radiocommunication Bureau, Mario Maniewicz, said, “We live in a time we talk about digital as a default, about digital transformation of our societies and economies, and the need for a fully connected society.”
For this to become reality, he noted, broadband connectivity needed to be made accessible to all, even in the most remote areas.
“Society’s increasing need for radio-based technologies and the tremendous opportunities for social development that these technologies provide have elevated the importance of the radio frequency spectrum and of national spectrum management,” he added.
The Secretary General, African Telecommunications Union, John Omo, who emphasised the need for collaboration and the ability to come up with common solutions, said the events of the past 18 months only made that need more urgent.
“COVID-19 has kept people apart from each other, but spectrum on mobile networks have built bridges and kept us together.
“Whether we succeed in our quest to further bridge the digital divide and address other challenges is pinned on our dedication to duty and the extent to which we want to go in using spectrum to address these challenges,” he said.
Omo also pointed out that bringing the 1.1 billion Africans, who need to be brought online, would require exceptional and coordinated efforts from government, the private sector, development partners and civil society.
The Vice President for Huawei Southern Africa Region, Samuel Chen, added, “Radio spectrum plays an important role in increasing Africa’s broadband penetration and throughput. African countries can allocate more spectrum to operators to accelerate the deployment of wireless broadband networks and increase people’s access to wireless broadband and data services at affordable prices. This will in turn promote the development of Africa’s digital economy.”
Other issues the conference will address include the importance of the 700Mhz to 800Mhz frequency bands for widespread coverage, and the need to address the skills gap when it comes to installing the technologies that will enable the widespread adoption of spectrum, Financial Street learnt.
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