Africa ready to lead with emerging technologies
Continent able to solve own telecommunications sector challenges
Africa can lead the emerging technologies that will be brought on by the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).
That is the view of Multichoice technical regulatory general manager Thabo Makenete, who spoke at the gala dinner of the Africa Telecommunications Union (ATU) Fourth African Preparatory Meeting for World Radio Conference at the East London International Convention Centre last week.
He said Africa was in a process of great innovation, and the continent was capable of solving its own challenges in the telecommunications sector.
“I believe the continent is ready to lead the course of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Our great continent has been innovative in the past and continues to be if we can remember this is where prepaid came from and the world joined us when prepaid was developed in Africa.”
He said the rise of mobile money was accelerating in the continent. “Mobile money reached critical mass in Africa. There is a lot that the continent has been doing and our financial institutions are actually among the best in the world in terms of digital technologies.”
He said SA was the first country on the continent to launch a digital satellite.
“As Multichoice we started from a small caravan in Randburg, [Gauteng]. We actually were among the first to launch digital satellite outside the UK, and this happened in ’94.
“As SA celebrates 25 years of democracy, as Multichoice we are celebrating 25 years of telling African stories,” he said.
Addressing more than 300 delegates from across the continent, Makenete said great strides had been made to prepare the continent for the 4IR.
“The internet of things, big data, blog chains, machine learning are some of the technologies the 4IR is built upon. These are already taken up in the continent – academia and research institutions are doing a lot in this space, and this is done through partnerships with government and private sector.”
He urged private and public sectors to work together on the evolution of new technologies.
“Private and public partnerships should be close so that as Africans we can solve our own unique challenges.
“We should not be seeking solutions outside Africa, we can solve our own challenges.”
He said the fifth generation (5G) wireless networking technology, theoretically capable of speeds up to 20 gigabits per second (GBPS) as compared to the current 4G LTE, which had a maximum throughput of 1 GBPS, was “upon us”.
5G is more than 600 times faster than current 4G speeds of mobile networks and 10 times faster than the fastest optical fibre network in SA. With 5G connectivity, it should be possible to download an ultra-high definition video of 4K-quality in 25 seconds.
“The work we are doing this week is of great importance. We are making decisions on the future of what will drive the fourth industrial revolution and we are building successful economies coming out of this particular conference.”
“5G is upon us and will open doors for many industries. However, we should know that 5G alone is not the silver bullet to all our challenges,” he said.
Communications & digital technologies minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said “a blessed continent” like Africa should identify its own niche in the 4IR.
“The time is now – gone are the days when people thought they could think for Africa, and do things for Africa.
“We are saying we are capable of resolving our own challenges and therefore we are going to provide our solutions.”