Unlike MTN Uganda, Airtel 5G is not just a demo, the telco has announced that its network edge is now in standby mode as it awaits spectrum and channel assignment from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).

During the announcement made at the Clement Hill based Airtel Uganda head offices, Mr. Manoj Murai, the telco’s managing director noted that over 11 network towers have been successfully tested with 5G technology in Uganda.

Last year, Airtel Uganda embarked on a mission of increasing its network coverage across the country with the construction of multiple intermediate network towers. By design, the new towers follow an ever-green design where a single pole is mounted with sector antennas on top with tree-like branches.

If the installation of multiple network towers across Uganda was to prepare for a switch to Airtel 5G, we can’t confirm, but highly suspect that 5G is the plan behind the Intermediate towers installed to improve customer signal reception with more sectorial antenna authority in an area.

Progress on Airtel 5G in Uganda: a PR bluff or fact to believe?

Due to the fact that Airtel 5G is a fresh announcement with no proof of usage showcased by Airtel Uganda, we can’t confirm that the telco has truly tested the technology as they say. As a point to note, MTN Uganda run a public 5G trial which we gladly witnessed at the telco’s Nyonyi Gardens offices in 2019.

For Airtel 5G, we did not receive an invitation to attend the launch ceremony, but we followed the announcement closely on Twitter. As per Tweets and official communication from the event, the telco didn’t reveal any actual speed tests run on the towers to the press, and so, we can’t confirm whether it’s true the telco run a 5G test across 11 towers in Kampala as they announced.

However, you can’t rule out the company’s official position noting that Airtel 5G is in the pipeline, but since Technology is best announced while in action, nothing can be taken as a fact, but simply a future plan to have the Network band in Uganda.

At the moment, Airtel 4G is the fastest mobile network technology in Uganda beating MTN Uganda to second. For Airtel 5G in Uganda, we can safely call the network technology a PR bluff much as Airtel already has 5G available in other countries such as India.

Our expectations on Airtel 5G in 2023

Airtel 4G offers amazingly super-fast Internet, when bundled with the Home broadband kit, all a customer can think of is super fast downloads and uploads. However, since Airtel 5G is still work in progress, and the announcement was made with no actual speed tests or media tours, in our view, don’t expect the network service in 2023.

In a nutshell, Airtel is 5G ready after conducting tests on 11 towers in Uganda as noted during the telco’s announcement ceremony. When rolled out, we expect the service to tag along special internet bundles since a demo by MTN Uganda showed the telco achieving 800Mbps back in 2019.

By Ugandan standards, current data bundles will deplete in seconds since 5G offers super fast speeds based on MTN’s recent achievement and achievable 5G network speeds offered by Airtel in countries like India.

By the time of writing, thousands of Airtel customers in Uganda still rely on the 3G network for communications, and 4G is only used in towns across the country. So, how about 5G, we can safely call this a PR bluff until an actual public demo is carried out just like the 2019 MTN announcement.

Now, 5G is the latest communications technology that is currently in its late design and deployment stages. With 5G, low latency is expected to be the main factor with applications running in Virtual Reality (AR), Augmented Reality (AR), and the Internet of Things (IoT) as much anticipated use cases.

However, with the emergence of 5G comes a rising need to secure user traffic and reduce on the rate of cyber-attacks across the world. In recent years, cyber-attacks have been launched using organization backdoors, low software applications security, and user negligence on following set IT security standards.

5G Cybersecurity as a key need for every organization can rely on stable models the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) architecture where fault isolation is possible and Information security is divided into 5 domains to protect user data and equipment.

1. Network access security: ensures that mobile users have secure access to network services and mobile network is secured against attacks via the (radio) access link.

• Network domain security: ensures that mobile backhaul nodes to securely exchange signaling data and user data at the mobile backhaul networks and protects against attacks on wireline link.

• User domain security: secures access to mobile stations.

4) Application domain security: allows applications on user and network side to securely exchange data.

 5) Visibility and configurability of security: allows user to get information about enabled security features and provision of services.

Furthermore, reliance on the 3GPP Architecture not only protects users and software applications from cyber-attacks, but also improves the legacy security model deployed on 3G and 4G communication networks.

Currently, Huawei is ranked as the best 5G enabler and the company has registered more than 5G commercial contracts to deploy the new generation network communication technology. As such, 5G cybersecurity is a top priority for the company having passed the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) certification in Europe.

The ENISA Certification is a framework under the Regulation (EU) 2019/881 to establish and maintain trust, security on cybersecurity products, services and processes. With the Certification, the United Kingdom security chief believes that the Huawei risk can be managed since the company has more than 30 years of experience and has huge efforts in the development of 5G cybersecurity.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared to the Tech Point Magazine team.

As the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry, Mobile World Congress plays a pivotal role in setting the tone for the space over the course of the coming year. Huawei has played a central role at MWC for some time now and the 2021 edition was no exception.

Speaking at the event, Ryan Ding, President of Carrier Business Group, Huawei pointed out that 5G — an area where Huawei is a leading player — is already demonstrating its potential in several markets, but added there was still room for more innovation.

Ding pointed to the progress of 5G technology in China and South Korea, where Huawei research showed rollout is already 20-times faster than 4G, with subscribers hitting 390 million in its home market.

Between 2021 and 2025, Ding added the combination of ICT and 5G digital infrastructure will drive economic growth of €1.9 trillion in China and €130 billion in South Korea, numbers proving operators were becoming drivers for national economies.

“We still need continued 5G innovation, we still need to grow our system, we need to coordinate telecoms standards and integrate 5G into our core production process,” he says. “5G innovation is an ongoing process and this is just the beginning.”

The event also saw Huawei launch a series of 5G products and solutions to promote multi-antenna technology to all bands and all scenarios to build leading 5G networks.

Supercharged by industry leading innovation, these newly released products and solutions are all the only one of its kind. They include Industry’s Lightest 64T64R Massive MIMO, BladeAAU Pro, Industry’s only 64T A+P Solution, BladeRRU Pro, Industry’s Only RF Unit that supports three low and three medium bands, and Industry’s Only Commercial FDD Massive MIMO.

Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei Wireless Product Line, said: “We aim to support operators to efficiently deploy 5G networks and provide first-rate experience. Huawei will work with global partners to innovate and share 5G benefits with all.”

Huawei’s 5G prowess saw it win several awards, including the ‘Best Mobile Network Infrastructure’ award at the Global Mobile (GLOMO) Awards for its BladeAAU product. Huawei launched the industry’s first BladeAAU product in 2019 to help operators overcome deployment challenges relating to the insufficient antenna space.

The Judges had this to say about the Huawei for BladeAAU series: “This stands out as a vital enabler for operators deploying 5G, ensuring support for commercially important spectrum in the years to come.”

Huawei also won awards for:

• 5G Telemedicine Solution Wins the GSMA GLOMO ‘Best Innovation for COVID-19 Pandemic Response & Recovery’

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2021/6/mwc2021-best-innovation-award

• Huawei RuralStar Pro Solution Awarded “Best Mobile Innovation for Emerging Markets” of GSMA GLOMO

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2021/6/mwc2021-ruralstar-glomo-award

• Rainforest Connection and Huawei’s “Nature Guardian” Project Wins GSMA GLOMO for Outstanding Mobile Contribution to the UN SDGs

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2021/6/tech4all-nature-guardian-glomo

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team.

The report features breakout statistics from Sub-Saharan African markets where around 15 percent of mobile subscriptions were for 4G at the end of 2020. Mobile broadband subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa are predicted to increase, reaching 76 percent of mobile subscriptions by 2026. However, 5G volumes are not expected to grow in the region for 2021 but are likely to reach around 70 million 5G subscriptions in 2026. 

Separately, the Global Telecom Market Report (GTM) also known as “The Future of Urban Reality Report” was also recently launched by the Ericsson ConsumerLab, to assess the penetration of 5G and the tremendous potential it holds to markets around the world.

The latest Ericsson ConsumerLab report is Ericsson’s largest consumer study to date, revealing key insights about what Sub-Saharan African consumers believe will happen beyond the pandemic, into the year 2025, through surveying a sample of 1,000 to 2,000 respondents between the ages of 15–79. 

The report found that, when entering the “next normal”, consumers in Africa will have added an average of 3.4 online services to their daily online activities, while also increasing the time they spend online by 10 hours per week by 2025, in comparison to their pre-pandemic habits. 

This move is also expected to bridge the gap between moderate and advanced online users, with the more moderate online users having introduced more online services in their daily life over the course of the pandemic.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of online education at schools and universities as well as remote working has increased to 87 percent and 63 percent respectively. Going forward online education and remote working are collectively expected to remain at a level of 51 percent. 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of online shopping stood at 28 percent out of the total number of all shopping events, both online and at physical stores. During the COVID-19  pandemic, this figure increased to 47 percent. Consumers anticipate their habits around online shopping will remain at a level of 37 percent after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. 

Todd Ashton, Vice President and Head of Ericsson South and East Africa says: “The recent reports have demonstrated the success of setting #AfricaInMotion. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to see continued growth in mobile broadband thanks to the young population, increased coverage, and more affordable smartphones. By 2025, we will be looking at a new normal with online activities becoming more common daily. 4G will become more pervasive and 5G will start to grow. As a result, we will definitely see increased economic growth and an acceleration in Africa’s digital inclusion.”

Ericsson has found that despite the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, service providers continue to switch on 5G, and more than 160 service providers have launched commercial 5G services. 

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared to the Tech Point Magazine team.

Popularly, the 5G n41 band ensures a better frequency and coverage from your service provider depending on your connecting device or smartphone. In the US, Verizon is the best 5G provider you can look up to with the fastest average speeds at a high of 722Mbps as compared to its competing providers.

Of the 4 providers, Verizon and T-Mobile offer over four 5G Bands and frequencies on their average gauge as AT&T, Sprint offer 2 bands each. So, based on your location in the US and browsing device, you may need to note what your provider can offer, and here is what these telcos offer.

Verizon 5G Bands and Frequencies

Verizon offers the sub-6GHz frequency in the name of Nationwide 5G and the mmWave frequency as Ultra Wide 5G. This means the telco is one of the biggest potential mmWave carriers in the US, and that’s a key point to note with the 28GHz band as its highest available offer with average speeds of 722Mbps.

AT&T 5G Bands and Frequencies

At&T relies on the old 850MHz frequency to offer low band 5G to users, the telco won the 39GHz spectrum in May 2020 and it’s expected to offer speeds of up to 3Gbps. With its base 850MHz frequency, AT&T currently offers speeds with a high of 59.3Mbps, and here are some of its evolving bands and frequency offers in the US.

Sprint 5G Bands and Frequencies

Sprint is one of the available 5G carriers in the US even with only one 5G band at the moment. The 2.5GHz frequency band offers great speeds and coverage in a single package, currently, Sprint offers average download speeds at 180Mbps with its single available 5G frequency.

T-Mobile Bands and Frequencies

Similar to Verizon, T-Mobile offers a bunch of 5G frequency bands to users. The carrier offers both mmWave and mid-band 5G and recently merged with Sprint to perfect its 2.5GHz frequency band. To offer wide coverage across the nation, T-mobile uses 600Mhz 5G with average speeds of 243Mbps.

The 5G Innovation lab is situated in the Tshimologong digital Innovation precinct located in the Johannesburg inner city of Braamfontein as a Wits University incubation center for startups and digital entrepreneurs.

Under the 5G Innovation Lab, Huawei provides end to end 5G connectivity alongside Rain’s 5G network available in SouthAfrica. And through the connectivity integration, the partnership is a signal for long-term joint innovation programs for business at Tshumologong and Wits University as an academic institution.

According to the Huawei Southern Africa Vice president, Yang Chen, the 5G innovation lab project aims at providing students with access to a live 5G environment to experiment, build their knowledge, and interact with 5G level applications.

Additionally, the lab will enable virtual reality (VR) remote learning opportunities for students and lecturers across the university. With stable links, the lab will also relay feeds for cross-campus safety and security camera networks.

So, students will be able to access 5G connectivity within the campus premises as techprenuers, and innovators will also get a taste of the latest network band through the off-campus technology hub.

Depending on the project’s success rate, Huawei is expected to deploy the same lab standards in various African countries in which it operates including Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, among others.

For now, 5G is a step away from being fully available in Africa. First, South Africa deployed its first network with Rain, before Nigeria and Uganda borrowed a leaf to test wavelength. Henceforth, with deployed 5G Labs, Africa will soon bid farewell to 4G LTE which is currently the best available network band.

But to turn on 5G on iPhone 12, the option is active by default with the available user option trimmed to turning off the network band. So, you can turn off 5G on iPhone 12 with ease since it is turned ON by default.

Apparently, Apple set the network switch as a user-mode companion to allow users easily flip between 5G and 4G based on the current geographical location. So, when you travel to a country with 5G availability, you can easily flip your switch to ON.

How to Turn on 5G on iPhone 12

• Go to Settings on your iPhone 12
• From the Settings list, select Cellular
• Then tap Cellular data options (located between data switch and personal hotspot)
• From the options list, tap Voice & Data
• Then choose 5G ON (to set 5G Only)
• Choose 5G Auto to only use the band when it’s available, and use 4G when unavailable (away from a coverage region)
• Done: Your iPhone 12 will be able to use 5G and you can always switch to LTE through the same procedure

5G Data Modes

When switching on 5G on iPhone 12, you should consider choosing a favorable data mode based on your data plan and the battery usage rate you desire. By default, the iPhone 12 is set to “Smart Data Mode” that easily flips between 5G/4G LTE for better battery life and perfomance.

However, in case you wish to change the default Apple setting “Smart Data Mode”, you can select data mode under Cellular data options to choose your preferred 5G method that can favor your iPhone’s battery life or maximize usage based on your mobile telco and data plan.

How to switch your iPhone 12 5G Data Mode

• Go to Settings on your iPhone 12
• From the Settings Menu, select Cellular
• Then tap Cellular data options (located between data switch and personal hotspot)
• From the options list, select Data Mode
• Then choose between Allow More data on 5G, Standard and Low Data Mode
• Done: based on your preferred data mode, 5G will use your current data plan and battery life as per your setting

How to Turn Off 5G on iPhone 12

• Go to Settings on your iPhone 12
• From the Settings Menu, select Cellular
• Then tap Cellular data options (located between data switch and personal hotspot)
• From the options list, tap Voice & Data
• Then choose LTE (4G)
• Done: 5G will be switched off and your network mode set to 4G LTE, to switch back, you can always choose 5G Auto or ON when available.

In 2020 alone, the company aimed at dominating 5 key technology sectors including 5G developments, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, and Industry applications as opportunity spicers for the general ICT ecosystem.

At the Connect event, Huawei revealed that going forward, it will focus on applying ICT technologies to industries and provide scenario-specific solutions. In return, this will help enterprises grow their businesses and also help governments achieve their goals of boosting domestic industry growth.

According to Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, Guo Ping, the company will leverage best practices in helping build smart cities, campuses, and enterprises by integrating ICT for swift problem solving.

“ We are creating New Value with Synergy across Five Tech Domains. As more and more governments and enterprises go digital, and embrace intelligence. The ICT sector will see incredible potential for growth. We look forward to opening this new chapter together with our partners.”

Said Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping.

Key Huawei Future Business Domains

Network: Within the networks domain, Huawei aims at Intelligent connectivity to deliver hyper-automated connections that offer super-fast gigabit access, a standard best known for 5G connectivity. When deployed, connectivity will enable intelligent upgrades for major business systems of governments and enterprises.

Computing: As per the computing domain, Huawei is committed to providing diverse computing power to its partners and customers through decoupling software from hardware to adapt its compute to different processing needs, including x86 and Kunpeng architectural standards.

Cloud: Actively, Huawei has established 23 data center regions worldwide. Through these, over 1.5million developers have been attracted to work and develop new generation technologies such as Hongmeng/Harmony OS that facilitate fast ICT developments.

Artificial Intelligence: AI as the new vast competition sector, Huawei aims to better integrate into major business systems of governments and enterprises using data to build core competence for AI systems.

All in All, Huawei is cementing its future plans by further bridging its competitive space in 5G, cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence. Even with current US sanctions in-sight, the ICT giant will continue crunching its capabilities to widen its partner offering in several countries worldwide.

During the E-Summit, operators and Industry partners shared their beliefs and experiences on how 5G driven applications can drive significant business, and general industry efficiency attracting a Global GDP of over $7.5 trillion.

The common Industry operators represented from the Business sector, Sea trade ports, agriculture, hospitals, and Smart factories as representatives shared their use cases and how 5G has enabled swift growth.

“Currently, 5G for business is still more of a branding concept, and more solid work needs to be done. To build a positive business cycle, work should be done in four aspects: technology, ecosystem, standards, and business model.”

– Huawei Carrier CMO Bob Cai

How 5G drives the future of business

Dimitris Mavrakis, research director of ABI research, highlighted that new ‘G’ technologies have historically offered major benefits to consumers.

5G, however, is likely to be most beneficial to the commercial sector.

By 2030, Mavrakis predicted that 5G’s impact on the global GDP will be over $7.5 trillion – compared to the $5.1 trillion 4G contributed in 2019.

“We expect that 5G will transform businesses in the same way 4G transformed consumers,” said Mavrakis.

However, he cautioned that it could take several years for the manufacturing world to adopt the technology.

Mavrakis also implored governments to provide opportunities for 5G to flourish within their countries, and highlighted ways that this is already being done, such as in the provisioning of free 5G spectrum and the reduction in taxation of carriers.

Several Huawei partners also highlighted the different industries that are already getting great benefits out of 5G.

Ports of trade 

Xu Mengqiang, General Manager of China Mobile Ningbo, highlighted that several 5G implementations have resulted in substantial benefits to a Ningbo port.

These include 5G-powered self-driving container trucks, remote controlled cranes, and backhaul HD video streaming – which shows key cranes in real time.

The Ningbo port envisions that efficiency will be increased by over 260% while labour costs will be cut by over 70% as a result of new 5G-powered technologies.

Agriculture

Dr Thomas Anken is the head of the Digital Production Federal Department of Economic Affairs Education and Research in Switzerland.

Anken highlighted that 5G is enabling a variety of smart farming methods that have a significant impact on the yields of farms in the country.

Examples include:

• Multispectral imaging of wheat fields by drones resulting in a 10% decrease in fertiliser usage.
• Tractors with an automated hoe that recognises plants and eliminates the weeds around them.
• The swift delivery of important intelligence to the cloud which ensures that automated robots receive data to update their machine learning capabilities, while farmers also receive insights into how they can optimise their processes.

Smart factories

Guo Lihong, Deputy Director of the Engineering Equipment Department of Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel, explained that 5G is expected to increase the factory’s efficiency by 30% while reducing costs by the same margin.

5G is used with remote-controlled cranes and slag-adding arms to streamline the factory’s processes, and these cranes have improved production efficiency by 33%.

The ability for production line surveyors to watch real-time production through HD video has also optimised these workers’ jobs.

In total, the factory plans to build 100 5G macro sites as well as three management centres to continue to reap the benefits of 5G.

Hospitals

Hospitals in the Henan province have implemented a variety of impressive 5G-powered functionalities to improve their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These systems were installed within 82 hours and involved the building of remote systems for 147 hospitals in 18 cities within the province.

Features that were available to these hospitals included:

• Remote surgery guidance.
• Robots through which doctors can talk to patients.
• Systems in ambulances which support first response teams – in an ambulance moving at 80km/h, backhaul speed is 50MB/s.

According to BBC, several incidents have been reported in Birmingham, Melling, and Liverpool. People in the reported areas set fire on 5G and non-5G towers in submission of Corona Virus theories spread in the region.

“I’m absolutely outraged and disgusted that people would be taking action against the infrastructure we need to tackle this emergency,” the NHS Director Stephen Powis said in a press conference.

Apparently, people believe that the strength of 5G signals easily boosts the spread of airborne germs including COVID19, and theories that 5G radiations damage body cells.

However, fact has it that 5G electromagnetic radiations are far below average levels, contrary to the theory that states the technology as a body cells damaging factor.

By the time People started setting blazes on 5G towers, theorists quoted a research paper that claims bacteria produces electromagnetic signals that to with other bacteria.

The research paper is believed to have spark the human intervention, although facts have it that viruses don’t produce electromagnetic signals not even the current SARS-COV-2 version of Corona Virus.

Scientists in the UK further confirmed that 5G networks are not a contributing factor to the rise of coronavirus in the region as an independent fact-checking charity has also marked the theories as fake news.