NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 14 – Global telecommunications giant Huawei wants the government to reduce the costs linked with spectrum allocations in order to harness investments on 5G mobile technology uptake which is on the rise in Africa.
Adam Lane, who is the Senior Director at Huawei Technologies says outside phone usage, the development and infusion of the 5G networks will touch every aspect of Kenyans’ livelihoods including remote education, smart manufacturing, medical treatments, and personal data.
“If you look at what they are doing with these ports in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan is incredible. The port in Mombasa is competing against the port in Tanzania and those in South Africa. It is a globalized world, so how do we ensure that Kenya’s logistics is efficient globally or at least regionally so that you can continue to benefit and not lose out to other global competitors,” he noted during a virtual forum with Kenyan lawmakers on Thursday.
“Every year, Huawei has a report on the global connectivity index and that is where we are really worried that the developed countries are falling further behind the developed countries, and we felt it is our responsibility to help share those benefits,” he explained.
Lane was part of a Huawei delegation that held a virtual meeting with the Senate Committee on ICT which is chaired by Baringo Senator Gideon Moi.
The telecommunications giant urged the Communication Authority of Kenya to borrow a leaf from countries like Japan, Thailand, Australia which have extended regulations waivers to telcos in exchange for enhanced connectivity access for its citizens in various parts of their countries.
A 4G spectrum licence currently costs about USD25 million (Sh2.5 billion) in the country limiting market penetration by telecommunication firms which have to part with the sum even before making other investments and hiring staff.
“But there is a direct impact between the price charged for spectrum and the price the operators can charge consumers, the competitiveness of a market because more entrants can come in because the prices go up, and there is a link between how effective a network is, because if a lot of money has been spent buying spectrum then there is less money that can be spent building network, hiring staff and all the other aspects,” Lane said.
He emphasized that 5G has been strategic for many countries and regions due to its potential contribution to economies.
“The main benefits for the citizens are for their home access, for their dispensary/health centre, for their schools, it will be much cheaper to use 5G to do that, than to use fibre. We see the potential could be higher because in Kenya that connectivity is not there yet,” the Huawei regional chief stated.
Nominated Senators Abishiro Halake, Petronila Were and Laikipia Senator John Kinyua vowed to push to ensure that the marginalized areas do not suffer further exclusion when operators begin the roll-out of the platform.
“Will 5G, even accelerate even more exclusion of the rural population, because some of these counties do not have connectivity even for the basic 2G. We saw 3G and then 4G came to the cities and now 5G is going to come to the cities, is that going to just leave the rural population, that is 80 per cent behind even further,” Halake said.
