Two-day Durban conference for 5G rollout
The two-day conference will focus on the countdown to the commercial rollout of 5G technologies.
TOGETHER with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) will today officially open its 5th Annual 5G Huddle. This is the first time ever that the conference is hosted in the Southern Hemisphere. Durban’s Garden Court, Marine Parade has been chosen as the venue where history will be made. It will run from 29 to 30 May 2018.
The two-day conference will focus on the countdown to commercial rollout of 5G technologies and what needs to be done from a policy and business perspective to meet the objective of delivering an all-inclusive 5G infrastructure. The focus will further be on 5G in both cities and rural areas and the difference that it can make in developing regions.
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WWRF chairperson, Nigel Jefferies said the demand for mobile communications is growing rapidly, adding that there is a lot of excitement about the development of standards, trials and testbeds for 5G mobile technology across the world.
“It is therefore important for us, through events such as the 5G Huddle, to understand the real opportunities that current and future mobile technologies can offer in new markets and application areas, and ensure that emerging technologies are designed and implemented so as to meet the needs of people in every society,” said Jefferies.
The Fifth generation technologies are believed offer various new advanced features including very high speed, high capacity, and low cost per bit. It is also said to supports interactive multimedia, voice, video, Internet, and other broadband services, more effective and more attractive; and lastly the uploading and downloading speed of 5G technology is very high.
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ICASA said its interest in 5G technology stems from the belief that the South African public should have access to this technology.
ICASA Councillor Paris Mashile said the development of the mobile and wireless networks is going towards higher data rates and all-Internet Protocol (IP) principle.
“It is our public service mandate, as a country and regulator, to ensure that we are not left behind as the world is moving forward and embracing new technologies that will benefit consumers, business and government, hence our involvement and participation in these debates and discussions as we look forward to the first commercial deployment of 5G in 2020,” said Mashile.
