In a keynote to open the Thrive Africa event, Granryd said MWC Africa would bring together a range of leaders spanning policy makers, CEOs and inventors, with a focus on the future of connectivity goals of the continent.
Details of where and when the event will be held will be released in due course.
MWC Africa will be the fourth instalment of MWC, adding to the flagship event in Barcelona, along with Shanghai and Los Angeles.
Milestones
The future was also very much a theme during Granryd’s talk.
He backed Africa to reach several important mobile milestones over the next five years. These include projections for 50 per cent of total connections to be on smartphones by the end of this year, half a billion mobile subscribers in 2021, and 1 billion mobile connections by 2024.
Advances in the region have been made possible by the continual investment of mobile operators in network infrastructure, Granryd added, which is expected to total $52 billion between 2019 and 2025.
He added the near-term focus was still on increasing 4G uptake in sub-Saharan Africa, while 5G has also recently launched in South Africa, with trials underway in Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.
Granryd also used the keynote to reiterate the importance of “robust and resilient” mobile networks during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
Source: Mobileworldlive
