Huawei and The World Broadband Association (WBBA) held the Broadband Africa Forum 2023 in Dubai today. The event brought together government organizations, telecom regulators, industry organizations, carriers, think tanks, and analysts to have in-depth discussions on an array of topics, such as “broadband industry trends, global best practices, and solution innovations”. Omdia, a well-known consulting firm, released the Africa Broadband Outlook 2023 white paper, which illustrates the industry status, trends, and future-oriented measures of the broadband development in Africa.
According to the white paper, the global home broadband market will grow from 1.4 billion subscribers in 2023 to 1.8 billion subscribers in 2028. Africa is one of the regions with the fastest growth of broadband services in the world. In 2022, the growth rate of broadband users in Africa is 11%, which is 7% higher than the global average, and the broadband penetration in Africa is predicted to exceed 20% by 2030.
Richard Jin, President of Huawei’s Optical Business Product Line, stated that the broadband industry in Africa has accelerated in the past five years. The fixed broadband penetration rate has doubled from 8% to 16%, and the network speed has increased significantly from 10 Mbps to 43 Mbps. Meanwhile, the proportion of global optical fiber users with 100 Mbps or higher has increased from 20% to 73%. More than 450 carriers, including Cote d’Ivoire Orange and South Africa Openserve, have launched gigabit broadband packages. Huawei always attaches great importance to the broadband industry development in Africa and is willing to actively cooperate with all parties in the region to facilitate the development of the broadband industry in Africa and accelerate the progress of digital Africa through continuous solution innovation.
Richard Jin speaking at the Broadband Africa Forum 2023
Magalie Anderson, Director of Management Information Systems Directorate, African Union Commission, noted: Africa’s transformation to a digital society requires universal access to broadband services. Countries should give priority to broadband infrastructure construction to accelerate the widespread use of broadband networks. The AU will actively provide technical expertise and support mechanisms to promote broadband development and universal access in Africa.
Chen Hui, Deputy Director of Industry and Planning Research Institute, CAICT, stated that the government plays a key leadership role in the country’s digital economy development. Through overall planning, inter-organization coordination, standards establishment, and ecological construction, the government effectively promotes the country’s digital transformation and injects new impetus into social and economic development.
Oussama Samet, Chief Network Officer of Tunisie Telecom, shared carriers’ experience in all-optical transformation. All-optical transformation is the primary strategy for Tunisie Telecom’s broadband service development and bears the important mission of the company’s digital transformation. 2023 is the first year of Tunisia’s all-optical transformation. 2023 marks the first year of all-optical transformation in Tunisia. In the coming years, copper line access networks will be replaced by optical fibers. We will adopt digital solutions to build future-oriented optical network services throughout the planning, product, delivery, operation, and marketing processes, thereby accelerating Tunisie Telecom’s all-optical transformation.
Chris Meng, Vice President of Huawei’s Northern Africa Carrier Business Department, summarized that Huawei will continue to practice the vision of “in Africa, for Africa” and actively cooperate closely with regional carriers and industry partners to promote the development of the broadband industry in Africa and accelerate the digital Africa process.
