The live network test enables new enterprise network services for Kenya, said Nokia
Nokia says that it has successfully piloted 4G and 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network slicing in Kenya with the help of the country’s biggest telco, Safaricom. The live network trial took place in Kenya’s Western Region. Nokia claims this pilot program is the first time that 4G and 5G network slicing has been successfully tested anywhere in Africa.
“The trial utilized a multivendor network environment and included RAN, transport and core as well as software upgrades to a range of Nokia’s products and services,” said Nokia in a release.
The pilot tested equipment from multiple vendors, and took place on Safaricom’s live commercial network. Nokia said that it provided base stations, network management software tools and Customer-Premises Equipment (CPE).
Network slicing enables operators to divide their networks into multiple logical slices, each capable of maintaining independent end-to-end levels of service quality, network performance, and security. Network slicing is generally seen as the unique province of 5G networks, but Nokia claims primacy as the first company to offer 4G/5G end-to-end slicing.
Safaricom is Kenya’s largest CSP and the dominant telco in the East Africa region. The company’s majority stakeholders include Vodafone, South African telco Vodacom, and the Kenyan government itself. Safaricom became the second launched 5G services in 2021, only the second African telco to do so behind Vodacom. The initial rollout happened in the Kenyan cities of Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii and Kakamega. Safaricom pledged to expand 5G service to more than 150 sites in the country within 12 months.
Safaricom has seen considerable success in Kenya with its M-Pesa money transfer service. M-Pesa has seen broad support from consumers who distrust banks and perceive mobile-to-mobile direct money transfer as a safer and faster way to keep money, and to pay for goods and services. Earlier this year, Safaricom announced that it had more than 30 million M-Pesa users in Kenya, and more than 51 million in total. Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa told reporters in March that the number of merchants accepting M-Pesa had increased from 173,000 to 387,000 from 2020 to 2022.
While M-Pesa and its growing satellite services continue to gain momentum, Safaricom in pivoting to grow its enterprise digital services business. In March, the company announced a new business strategy as a tech solutions provider for Kenyan enterprises. The company announced IT consulting services for businesses seeking help with cloud computing, cybersecurity and internet of things (IoT) deployments. The FWA pilot shows Safaricom the path forward to continue enterprise digital transformation in Kenya, said Nokia.
“Safaricom is now poised to support new types of enterprise network services, including fast lane internet access and application slicing,” said Nokia.
James Maitai, Safaricom network director, said that Safaricom was “looking forward to tailoring our service offerings to individual customers and industries, to meet their needs for high-speed connectivity precisely and without unnecessary cost.”
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