Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company, Nokia, has been selected by African mobile operator, Togocom in a three-year deal to deploy 5G across Togo.
The 5G network was launched in the capital city Lomé, the first time a 5G network was deployed in West Africa.
According to reports by GSMA, 5G is expected to account for as many as 1.2bn connections by 2025. But in Africa, the deployment map still looks very patchy, with South Africa leading the pack with 5G deployment across 17 locations.
The East African nation of Madagascar trails with 5G deployment in only two locations.
The 5G era only began in sub-Saharan Africa this year after the two South African telecom giants, Vodacom and MTN launched the first major 5G networks in the region, offering 5G mobile and fixed wireless access services in 17 locations across the country.
This came sooner than expected after the South African government assigned temporary spectrum in the 3.5 GHz range in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. The immediate opportunity for 5G in South Africa, as well as the rest of the region, is to use FWA to bridge the gap in fixed broadband connectivity for homes and businesses, according to a GSMA 2020 report released last week.
But mass adoption is still a long way off 5G trials have been conducted elsewhere in Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. However, mass adoption of mobile 5G is not imminent in the region, according to the GSMA report.
