relatively economic to buy. So, what you have
is that many people have got devices that can
connect to data but don’t have a realistic way
of connecting without building a Wi-Fi.”
What is the current infrastructure
like in Africa?
The big oil companies have been able to
fund Virtualised Services Assurance Platforms
(VSAPs) from various early stages and fibre
to major cities, but there’s still large amounts
of Africa where there simply isn’t any fibre
connectivity. So, a lot of the technology is
being deployed on wireless of some sort
because, even though you might have 3G,
4G has not really been rolled out anywhere.
People might be getting excited about 5G,
but it’s not really a realistic prospect even
if the standards are agreed next year. So,
when you say you want to embrace a city
and provide equal opportunities, particularly
www.intelligentcio.com
“
YOU ONLY HAVE
TO LOOK AT
COUNTRIES
LIKE NIGERIA TO
SEE THAT IT’S
ABUNDANTLY
CLEAR THAT
YOU WON’T BE
ABLE TO HAVE
THINGS WITHOUT
TECHNOLOGY.
for those that are less well off, how do you
connect them?
Well, by far the economic way of connecting
them is by using their mobile devices as a
Wi-Fi. So, you’ve got a ‘where are we today’,
which is much more primitive than I think
people realise. Opposing that you’ve got a
lot of very visible articles where people are
trying to suggest that 5G is just around the
corner. But it’s really not.
Even if you have the devices after you’ve
got the standard, who’s going to pay for
the infrastructure? But if we can bring
connectivity to people early in their lives, we
can help educate them. There’s no shortage
of roles, there’s just a shortage of people
skilled for those roles. We’re certainly able
to dramatically improve employment, but
people need to be caught early in their lives
to get them the education.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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