Connectivity, Digital Services and Applications: Huawei’s key focus for Africa’s ICT Development

The AfricaCom conference and exhibition got underway this week in Cape Town, offering a platform for the architects of Africa’s digital future to showcase technologies for Africa’s development.

Huawei, diamond sponsor of the the-day event, under the theme “Building a Better Connected Africa” I revealed its key focus areas that will accelerate the proliferation of digital services in the African continent.

Digital transformation is the engine for Africa Telecom industry growth, and it will also empower the innovation of other industries. Huawei focuses on its core businesses and is committed to empowering carriers’ digital transformation with continuous strategic investment aiming at opening up platform capabilities to help carriers to build an open, collaborative, and win-win industry ecosystem to accelerate digital transformation.

Huawei demonstrates the leadership position in the ICT industry, with its innovative solutions in the main pavilion, as well as in its demo and experience pavilion, exhibiting a wide range of solutions such as Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IOT), Smart Home, Cloud ,Video, SDN/NFV, Safe City, etc. These are designed to help African telecom carriers and enterprises transform their network into an agile and flexible one and to realise Operational Efficiency, Smart CAPEX and Business Transformation in the digital era.

Connectivity prevails as the panacea for the deployment of digital services and applications for enterprises, government and carriers. From now until 2021, the Mobile Broadband (MBB) data traffic in Africa is expected to increase by at least 26-fold, mainly driven by applications such as video, IoT and by connecting the unconnected population.

At the Innovative MBB Solutions stand, Huawei shares the latest insights and showcases the end-to-end MBB solutions, innovative technologies and new products which will allow operators to build ubiquitous mobile broadband networks offering the best user experience.

Leveraging a broad portfolio of ICT infrastructure products, Huawei’s cloud Services Solutions such as Digital inCloud, Video cloud, etc… provide the reliability, agility, and price-performance needed to deliver cutting-edge applications and services quickly, safely, and securely, Huawei promotes the Cloud based ecosystem of services contents and infrastructure applications.

Through its cloud platform and opening basic video capabilities, Huawei Video Solutions enables customers to develop video services in the quickest manner, deliver supreme user experiences at a cost that were never possible before. Huawei Video Cloud will help customers to quickly bring video services online, reduces the time to market, and ensures the best user experience and data security. Video Cloud supports multiple service scenarios, assisting customers in quick commercial use of video services, promoting industry cooperation and building a win-win video ecosystem based on increasingly open video capabilities.

Huawei’s IoT solutions which are currently being launched by many carriers in Africa will drive the digital transformation of carrier’s broadband services by making the world of connected things a reality. Huawei’s LTE-based Narrow Broadband IoT (NB-IoT) technology will enable telecom operators in the region to deliver ubiquitous, cellular IoT. This technology will spark new business opportunities in smart metering, smart parking, logistics tracking, and smart cities in Africa.

Huawei’s Smart Home solution features a flexible architecture and access independence. The Smart Home solution incorporates a smart home gateway to connect various smart home appliances, and an IoT connection management platform is required to enable various applications. Huawei has already developed solutions for home health, entertainment, security, and home automation, which promote a safer, happier, and more comfortable and convenient lifestyle. These solutions are designed assist operators to transform from traditional home broadband services to provide intelligent home services powered by Fiber to the x (FTTX) technologies and Wireless to the x technologies (WTTX) to increase subsequent service income revenues.

Connecting people in Africa remains Huawei’s top priority. Huawei Marine in partnership with 20 carriers to build 8 new submarine cables systems and upgrade 2 existing systems in Africa to provide better international data access for 15 countries. To date, Huawei Marine is currently deploying the 6000 km repeatered South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) system between Cameroon and Brazil enabling connectivity for a population of 198 million.

In addition, this year AfricaCom was an excellent platform for African thought leaders and industry experts, to explore the role of the ICT in driving Africa’s Digital Economy.

A growing number of countries are now focusing on capitalizing on ICT technologies that better serve people, allow for more accurate and efficient decisions, and building a Digital Economy. Many countries have formulated their national ICT strategies and Huawei’s focus is centered on building an open digital ecosystem with all industry partners in a wide range of activities such as ICT investment Planning, top-level Consulting, and ICT infrastructure prioritization in order to accelerate digital transformation within different African countries and industries, and promote thriving digital economies.

Huawei’s Southern Africa Region President Mr. Li Peng said:

“This year Huawei has demonstrated that it is best positioned to play a pivotal role in supporting digital transformation and development of ICT in Africa. Today, we see that behind a globally competitive connectivity is a strong, collaborative industry chain with high levels of technological convergence and industry integration Huawei looks forward to working closely with industries and academia in the continent to create a Better Connected Africa”.

Source: Langmead & Baker

About Huawei Technologies Zambia

China-based company Huawei Technologies has been established in Zambia for more than 12 years and employs around 100 staff, most of whom are local Zambian people including those holding key senior positions.The company is bridging the digital divide with its technologies and solutions for telecommunications networks, consumer devices, and cloud computing, and was the first to introduce the high-speed 3G network to Zambia.

The information and communications technology (ICT) company is a strategic partner and solution provider for all the telecommunications operators in Zambia.Huawei works with around 200 local suppliers and sub-contractors, helping to create thousands of additional jobs.

Recently the company was awarded a contract by the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) to install 169 mobile telephone base stations in rural areas, helping to bring connectivity to remote communities.

 Huawei worldwide

Founded in 1987, Huawei has grown from a US$5,680 small firm to a leading global company with sales of US$60.8 billion in 2015.
As the world’s largest telecommunication and ICT solutions provider, Huawei serves 45 of world’s top 50 telecom operators. Its products and solutions are benefiting one third of the world’s population.With the joint effort of 170,000 employees in more than 170 countries, Huawei is ranked 129th of the Fortune 500 companies.

Contributing to the sustainable development of the society, economy, and the environment, Huawei Technologies creates green solutions that enable customers to reduce power consumption, carbon emissions and resource costs.
More information is available at www.huawei.com