Johannesburg – The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is supporting the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) in hosting the 5th Annual 5G Huddle to be held for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere. The 5G Huddle will be held in Durban from 29 to 30 May 2018 at the Garden Court, Marine Parade.
The two-day conference will focus on the countdown to commercial rollout of 5G technologies and at 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.
According to Nigel Jefferies, WWRF Chairperson, the demand for mobile communications is growing rapidly, and 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,” says Jefferies.
The Fifth generation technologies offer various new advanced features which makes it most powerful and in huge demand in the future. 5G technology, among others, offer very high speed, high capacity, and low cost per bit, 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.
In an effort to intensify its relations and a collaborative arrangement with government, institutions of higher learning, research institutions, industry players as well as any other formations with interest in the uptake of technological innovation, ICASA hosted the inaugural 5G Forum in November 2017.
ICASA’s interest in 5G technology stems from the belief that ultimately the South African public should have access to this technology, which is all embracing and would offer much more scope, in a manner that would enable automation of device and machine use, through the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT).
ICASA Councillor Paris Mashile says that the development of the mobile and wireless networks is going towards higher data rates and all-Internet Protocol (IP) principle. Each year, mobile terminals are obtaining more processing power, more memory on board, and longer battery life for the same applications.
“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,” concludes Mashile.
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