5G technology to drive Konza City development

Is Kenya ready for five 5G network?

With Asia and other continents of the world taking steps to become a global leader in 5G and the Advanced Intelligence (AI) technology, Kenya will be ranked one of the first East African countries to tap into this, with the completion of the Data Centre by Huawei in Konza Smart City.

This would help to revolutionize several industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, transport, health sector, making factory automation, as well as communication between self-driving vehicles to regulate traffic.

According to Ms Pamela Tutui, a director at Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), Kenya is set to borrow ideas from a campus in China’s Shenzhen City to lift Konza Smart City to a technology hub in Africa.

“Smart cities is bringing solutions to a city that is not smart. Like in Nairobi what is stopping us from having street lights, from looking at our road networks and to go beyond just taxis and looking into our busing lanes,” says Ann Theresse Jatta Ndong – Director UNESCO regional Eastern Africa.

“Kenya still needs to provide the 5G spectrum licenses that are required before any operator can build 5G. At the moment I believe the spectrum licenses is one of the key things holding Kenya back from moving forward to 5G. Hoping those licenses will come forward then we can move to build 5G in Kenya,” adds Joe Kelly- Vice President, Corporate Communications.

The Konza City project, which is part of Kenya’s Vision 2030 development plan, will entail the setting up of a smart city, with an integrated urban information and communication technology (ICT) network that supports delivery of connected urban services and allows for efficient management of those services on a large scale.

The government has allocated Ksh.10 billion towards the project, which has began with detailed planning relating to ICT infrastructure.