FEATURE
Toni Pellegrino, Head of Sub- Sahara Africa and Managing Director of Nokia South Africa
Director of Nokia South Africa, describes broadband connectivity as a foundation of Africa’ s digital economy.
The challenge, he says, is moving beyond simply connecting more people towards delivering connectivity that is affordable, abundant, scalable and capable of supporting increasingly data-intensive businesses and digital lifestyles.
Broadband is already influencing access to education, healthcare, financial services, employment and digital commerce, while enabling businesses to participate more effectively in the digital economy.
Fibre, 5G and satellite converge
There is unlikely to be a single technology capable of addressing Africa’ s diverse connectivity requirements. Instead, the future will increasingly depend on combining fibre, mobile and satellite infrastructure.
“ Africa needs all three, and the value lies in how they are combined,” said Bakry.
Fibre provides the capacity required for backbone networks, data centres and AI infrastructure. 5G offers mobility and flexibility, particularly for industrial environments and fixed wireless access. Satellite, meanwhile, can extend connectivity and resilience to areas where terrestrial infrastructure is difficult or uneconomical to deploy.
An enterprise could therefore use fibre as its primary connection, 5G as a secondary option and satellite for remote sites or additional resilience. SD-WAN can then select the most appropriate connection according to application requirements and business policies.
“ The objective is not choosing a technology. It is orchestrating three as one infrastructure,” said Bakry.
Pellegrino believes Africa has already made significant progress in expanding broadband coverage, but argues that the next challenge is ensuring infrastructure can keep pace with rising demand.
As adoption grows, consumers are likely to move from relatively modest data consumption towards significantly higher usage. FTTH, 4G and 5G will consequently all have important roles, particularly in densely populated areas.
But simply increasing capacity at the edge will not be enough. The underlying optical and IP infrastructure must also be capable of handling the additional traffic. Data generated by consumers and businesses ultimately converges into aggregation networks, optical infrastructure and internet access networks, meaning capacity must increase throughout the connectivity ecosystem.
Africa therefore faces a multifaceted broadband challenge involving access, capacity and affordability, supported by infrastructure capable of scaling sustainably.
From traditional WAN to intelligent connectivity
As these connectivity models become more complex, CIOs are also modernising the WAN.
Morne Vermeulen, Engineering Lead at Redvine Networks, says organisations are increasingly
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INTELLIGENT CIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com