ICT experts call on African countries to speed up E-band planning for 5G roll out
Africa needs to put in place the right regulatory systems governing the rollout of wireless backhaul spectrum to help speed up 5G roll out across the continent.
This is the call made by ICT experts at the 6th Annual Sub Sahara Spectrum Management Conference that took place online between 20th and 22nd July.
For data and information to move between points on the internet, there needs a medium that allows these points to interface with each other.
Wireless backhaul is the use of wireless communication, such as microwave, to move data between the wireless site and core. It’s a key plank in connecting devices to the internet.
A combination of high capacity and low latency makes E-band (70-80 GHz), which is ideal for high capacity backhaul.
“The E-band and 5G RAN spectrum planning prior to 5G is essential for the development of ICT in Africa especially as network densification and planning for (dense) urban network development advances,” said Shu Peijian, Director of Wireless and Core Network for Huawei Southern Africa Region.
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According to GSMA’s wireless backhaul evolution delivering next-generation connectivity report published in February, 5G is set to have a significant impact on backhaul networks in the coming years.
Microwave backhaul will account for the majority of global backhaul links between 2021 and 2027, with roughly 65 per cent market share.
The continued use of wireless backhaul will require an evolution toward higher frequency bands, such as the E-band, which can support wider channels and have a greater spectrum available.
Having demonstrated clear technical advantages in 5G backhaul construction globally, the E-band spectrum has been allocated in 86 countries, including eight in Africa.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), for example, started E-Band regulatory planning in 2015 with amendments for use of these bands coming into force in 2016.
Nigeria is also amongst the first countries in Africa to open up 70/80GHz spectrum to support terrestrial service providers for short backhauling.
“E-band enables Nigeria’s backhaul network to evolve to the 4G & 5G era. The release of E-band is a very important step to accelerate Nigeria’s ICT development and enable more people to enjoy digital service,” says Engineer Joseph Emeshili, Head Spectrum Planning, Nigerian Communications Commission.
Industry insights show more than 85 per cent of base stations in Africa use microwave for backhaul while eight carriers provisioned 5G services.
Alongside the rollout of 5G in Africa, microwave backhaul is playing an increasingly important role as an essential component to 5G network infrastructure in the continent.
In March, telco giant Safaricom launched the 5G network in the country, making Kenya the second in Africa to roll out the technology to customers.
Safaricom said it would trial the technology in four towns, while planning to expand the 5G network to nine other towns in 12 months.
The 6th Annual Sub Sahara Spectrum Management Conference provided platform for governments, regulators and industry to deliberate on issues pertaining to the management and coordination of spectrum policy across Africa and clear the path towards 5G to build Africa’s digital future.
5G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks that provides data speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G and lower latency (the delay before data transfer begins after an instruction for its transfer).
5G can also support up to a million connected devices per square kilometer, compared to up to 100,000 for 4G.
