SS: Ghana, a country with a population of about 33 million, announced last August that it would not auction 5G spectrum but instead award a licence to a single entity to build and manage a wholesale, open access 5G network that would serve rural, as well as urban, areas and provide capacity not only to mobile operators but private companies too. That single entity, dubbed Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC), has now been unveiled (of which more in a moment).
The main aim is to encourage mobile data service uptake and use as quickly as possible in a market with relatively low 4G uptake: According to statistics shared by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation late last year, only about 15% of the country’s mobile users have signed up for 4G services, while 71% are using 3G and 14% are still using 2G services. For the ministry, developing a national 4G/5G network is the best way forward as it doesn’t rely on the investment pace of the private operators, of which there are three main players.
Tech Mahindra has long been an international player, but Jio Platforms, having developed a portfolio of cost-effective technologies and products that are now proven in one of the largest and fastest-growing mobile networks in the world, is just starting to reach out beyond India, and it has a lot to offer. Reliance Jio has not only built out India’s most successful 4G network and become the market leader with more than 460 million mobile connections, it has also recently deployed a national 5G network in less than 18 months and has already signed up more than 100 million 5G customers in a country with low average revenue per user (ARPU) levels. This means everything needs to be built and run with the ultimate capex and opex efficiency in mind and married with the availability of low-cost end user devices (something that Jio Platforms has also developed). Radisys is now bringing that experience to Ghana as part of the NGIC partnership. It’s worth noting too that the NGIC plans are not limited to cellular services but include 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services for broadband service rollout. And both Nokia and Radisys (courtesy of its Mimosa acquisition) have FWA technology and expertise as part of their portfolios.
But the plans don’t stop there: As the Jio Platforms unit noted in the press release announcing its involvement in the Ghana rollout, “the goal is to replicate this high-speed mobile data model across Africa, beginning with Ghana.”
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SS: Ghana, a country with a population of about 33 million, announced last August that it would not auction 5G spectrum but instead award a licence to a single entity to build and manage a wholesale, open access 5G network that would serve rural, as well as urban, areas and provide capacity not only to mobile operators but private companies too. That single entity, dubbed Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC), has now been unveiled (of which more in a moment).
The main aim is to encourage mobile data service uptake and use as quickly as possible in a market with relatively low 4G uptake: According to statistics shared by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation late last year, only about 15% of the country’s mobile users have signed up for 4G services, while 71% are using 3G and 14% are still using 2G services. For the ministry, developing a national 4G/5G network is the best way forward as it doesn’t rely on the investment pace of the private operators, of which there are three main players.
Tech Mahindra has long been an international player, but Jio Platforms, having developed a portfolio of cost-effective technologies and products that are now proven in one of the largest and fastest-growing mobile networks in the world, is just starting to reach out beyond India, and it has a lot to offer. Reliance Jio has not only built out India’s most successful 4G network and become the market leader with more than 460 million mobile connections, it has also recently deployed a national 5G network in less than 18 months and has already signed up more than 100 million 5G customers in a country with low average revenue per user (ARPU) levels. This means everything needs to be built and run with the ultimate capex and opex efficiency in mind and married with the availability of low-cost end user devices (something that Jio Platforms has also developed). Radisys is now bringing that experience to Ghana as part of the NGIC partnership. It’s worth noting too that the NGIC plans are not limited to cellular services but include 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services for broadband service rollout. And both Nokia and Radisys (courtesy of its Mimosa acquisition) have FWA technology and expertise as part of their portfolios.
But the plans don’t stop there: As the Jio Platforms unit noted in the press release announcing its involvement in the Ghana rollout, “the goal is to replicate this high-speed mobile data model across Africa, beginning with Ghana.”