Ericsson is building artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous networks for Africa’s telecommunications sector, as the continent increasingly moves into an intelligent society and industry.
The multinational networking and telecoms company says as South Africa’s network operators increasingly deploy 5G networks, network operations will become more complex and require autonomy and minimal manual intervention to simplify complexity for telecoms operations.
During an interview with ITWeb TV, Majda Lahlou Kassi, VP and head of customer unit for West and Southern Africa at Ericsson, discussed the company’s plans around building AI-based autonomous networks, its 6G-focused R&D initiatives and increasing internet penetration in Africa.
Ericsson is developing autonomous network operations by leveraging AI, particularly generative AI (GenAI), to create AI agents that manage and optimise networks. These agents can automatically analyse network data, detect issues and take corrective actions, she noted.
According to Ericsson, 5G subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to grow from 11 million in 2023, to 420 million by 2030, representing a 59% annual growth rate.
With autonomous network operations and 5G being closely intertwined, autonomous networks are becoming a necessity for telecoms operators to remain competitive and protect their critical mobile infrastructure, she explained.
“As Ericsson, we believe in the power of mobility and connectivity, intertwined with cloud and AI in unleashing the full potential for industries.
“What will take us to the next era is building high-performance networks. We are on a path to autonomous networks, where AI plays a key role in elevating the complexities that come with integrating cloud, 5G and many other technologies that bring complexities in the way we operate and design networks. So, AI helps us become more efficient and also to upgrade the networks to perform in record times.”
According to Lahlou Kassi, while AI is not new in the telecoms space, GenAI and agentic AI have great potential to transform business models for operators.
GenAI will also help the relationship between consumers and telecoms operators to evolve – through combining the power of AI and 5G to create new consumer experiences.
“While many operators are using GenAI and agentic AI in their consumer engagement channels, I think we haven’t seen the full potential yet. These technologies will transform customer experience and bring a complete shift in how consumers interact with their service provider. It will also play a role in unleashing new business cases and new use cases in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries.”
Boosting mobile connectivity
South African mobile network operators are steadily ramping up 5G network deployment. As of December 2024, according to Africa Analysis, over 50% of the South African population had access to 5G networks, marking a milestone in the sector’s development.
Lahlou Kassi commented: “South Africa is more advanced than other parts of the continent when it comes to emerging technologies, and 5G is not an exception. We have seen 5G deployments across the country, and now we are talking about taking it further and looking at the next level, and how we can bring 5G Advanced and 5G Standalone to the market.”
While 4G networks are becoming more prevalent, the majority of Africans are still transitioning from 3G to 4G, she continued.
In terms of 6G, Ericsson is playing a key role in driving the research agenda for the imminent technology; however, there may be no commercial developments of 6G before 2030, she said.
The Ericsson Mobility Report projects that Sub-Saharan Africa will see a surge in mobile subscriptions, reaching 1.2 billion by 2030.
Lahlou Kassi believes that while the continent still lags behind in overall internet penetration compared to other regions, the rapid growth of mobile subscriptions and the expansion of mobile broadband networks have greatly improved access to the internet.
“While Africa is still below the global average, it still has the fastest growth when it comes to internet connectivity on the continent and we see tremendous growth when it comes to data consumption across the continent. In some markets, we have reached the 100% penetration level, while in other countries we are still at 30% to 40% penetration.
“Moving forward, I believe 4G will be the dominant technology on the continent. By 2030, we believe 30% of the subscriptions will be 5G-based. Of course, we still have some rural areas that need connectivity and this is what we are actively working on at the moment – to bring a fixed wireless solution to the rural areas to help close the digital divide there.”
Lahlou Kassi pointed out that this requires a multi-faceted approach, including fostering digital skills training, infrastructure investments, promoting affordable mobile devices and data, and encouraging public-private partnerships.
“In Africa, the lack of affordable devices remains one of the factors that hinder the full potential of mobile broadband everywhere. Accessibility would help us with expanding coverage to the most remote areas of the country – a very important element that will allow scale.
“We also need to think about changing the business models around rural connectivity and how we can have the entire ecosystem enabling that, so it’s not only the telecoms operators’ and the vendors’ priority, but creating public-private partnerships to enable quality connectivity.
“With that, we do believe that digital skills are critical and we have to make sure we upskill the entire population and bring the knowledge of AI, cloud and 5G to schools to ensure youth are equipped with essential digital skills.”
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