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INDUSTRY UPDATES
34 JAN-MAR 2024
New Opportunities of 5G FWA in Africa, Addressing the Gap in Last-
mile Fixed Broadband Connectivity
Draft
At the Africacom 5G Summit, commercial services, among which 3.5GHz, 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz spectrums
GSMA Intelligence cooperate 14 operators have launched 5G are critical for operators in South
with ICASA, MTN South Africa, and FWA services. Nearly 10 other African Africa to develop 5G FWA. In addition,
Huawei, released the white paper countries have announced plans to 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz spectrums have
titled "5G FWA in Africa, Emerging launch 5G for commercial use. 5G multiple commercial values because
Trends and Opportunities, " which FWA is 10 times faster than 4G FWA. these two spectrums can support
comprehensively analyzes the current 5G FWA is not only an upgrade of 4G both 4G and 5G, allowing operators
development trends and future FWA, but also a pragmatic strategy for to expand 4G networks while also
opportunities of 5G FWA services in mobile operators to expand mobile being used to develop 5G. Multiple
Africa. data services and provide enhanced benefits from one investment. In
terms of CPE prices, GSA data shows
that 4G/5G CPE shipments double
every year. However, CPE costs in
sub-Saharan Africa are far too high,
which has become a bottleneck for
5G monetization and FWA market
development. The GSMA Intelligence
whitepaper recommends that the
government reduce taxes on terminal
to promote the development of the
digital economy. Many operators in
Africa have lowered the threshold for
market development through CPE
trade-in and credit.
In the white paper, GSMA said that
connectivity is critical to building
Africa's digital economy. 5G FWA
is well-placed to play its role in
addressing the gap in last-mile fixed
broadband connectivity by delivering
enhanced connectivity services to
According to Kenechi Okeleke, connectivity services for home and households and enterprises. To take
Director, GSMA Intelligence, 5G FWA enterprise network devices, opening advantage of these opportunities,
has been widely recognized as an up new incremental space in the stakeholders like governments and
alternative to fixed broadband, with 116 home and ToB markets. Leaders in 5G policymakers, operators, service
operators worldwide having already FWA get the opportunity to compete providers, ecosystem partners,
launched 5G-based commercial FWA in a market that remains mostly wide need to take steps to facilitate the
services in 57 markets. The maturity of open. deployment of 5G FWA networks
5G FWA technologies and commerce and stimulate adoption among
is bringing new opportunities for According to the white paper, households and enterprises.
digitalization in Africa and helping the development of FWA services
Africa address the gap in last-mile depends on various factors, including White paper accessible here: https://
fixed broadband connectivity. spectrum availability, 4G FWA data.gsmaintelligence.com/research/
availability, CPE price, spectrum research/research-2023/5g-fwa-in-
At present, 30 operators in 17 slicing technology, and 5G network africa-emerging-trends-and-
markets in Africa have launched 5G coverage. In terms of spectrum, the opportunities.
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