CEO ROUNDTABLE AT THE MOBILE 360 SERIES – AFRICA

Operators from Millicom Africa, Safaricom PLC, Orange, Telkom Kenya, Airtel – Tigo Rwanda, MTN RwandaCell and MTN Group were present. The roundtable discussion was focused on 5G in Africa with a deep dive on operator digital services strategy from a global perspective.

The attendees also discussed the concept of localisation of the 5G narrative through recent regional events in Beijing, Seoul, Silicon Valley, The Hague, Mexico City, Shanghai and most recently in Kigali.

The key outcome from the discussions was that there was a need to moderate the hype on 5G Talk to avoid a race to the bottom. Instead, focus on increasing adoption and use of existing Next Gen Networks and Technology-agnostic services.

The key action for the GSMA is advocacy leveraging regional regulatory platforms on Active Sharing, 5G is for Enterprises and USFs for Connectivity gaps. Operators’ key action is to organizationally align with the regional findings of the 5G report to avoid starting a race to the bottom in their market(s).