Safaricom 5G: Safaricom has officially activated Kenya’s first 5G internet. The high speed internet is now available in Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii, and Kakamega.
During the launch, Safaricom announced that the high speed internet will be available in 150 sites across nine towns over the next 12 months.
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“Our goal is to establish universal coverage, such that anywhere in the country, it will be possible to enjoy the excellent experience of faster internet speeds with little latency to facilitate a digital lifestyle,” Safaricom chief executive officer Peter Ndegwa said.
According to Qualcomm, 5G is designed to deliver peak data rates up to 20 Gbps based on IMT-2020 requirements. Qualcomm Technologies’ flagship 5G solutions, the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X65 is designed to achieve up to 10 Gbps in downlink peak data rates. But 5G is about more than just how fast it is. In addition to higher peak data rates, 5G is designed to provide much more network capacity by expanding into new spectrum, such as mmWave.
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5G can also deliver much lower latency for a more immediate response and can provide an overall more uniform user experience so that the data rates stay consistently high—even when users are moving around.
The 5G technology can easily act as an alternative to Home Fibre and Fibre for Business services, targeting customers in places where Safaricom is yet to roll out its fibre network. Enterprise and Home Internet customers on the service will be provided with a 5G router. Additionally, the 5G service will be available on mobile phones beginning with the Huawei.
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5G can support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometre compared to 4G which can only support up to 100,000 connected devices in a similar area. This makes 5G suitable for providing super-fast internet speeds in high density areas and for linking thousands of connected devices such as in a manufacturing and supply chain management for businesses.
Nokia and Huawei have been chosen as the two technology partners to implement the roll out of Safaricom’s 5G network. For mobile internet customers, the service will be available on select 5G smartphones from Samsung, Huawei and Nokia, all available at Safaricom Shops. The company has also revealed plans to later increase 5G internet speeds beyond 1,000 Mbps in later stages of the trial.
