In the latest episode of Tech Talk, Greg Stewart hosts Fran Heeran, Global Vice President for Global Telecommunications at Red Hat, to delve into the current landscape and future of 5G technology. The discussion highlights that while 5G has been the fastest adopted mobile technology globally, its rollout in Africa remains primarily urban, with significant potential yet untapped in rural areas.
Fran emphasizes the challenges of high investment costs and the slow release of spectrum as barriers to widespread adoption. Despite these hurdles, 5G offers promising opportunities, particularly in fixed wireless access broadband, which could revolutionize connectivity in remote regions.
The conversation also explores the role of 5G in enterprise growth, with network slicing and fixed wireless access emerging as key revenue streams. Fran notes the importance of infrastructure sharing and public-private partnerships to bridge the investment gap, estimated at $40-50 billion for sub-Saharan Africa. The potential of 5G to support new technologies like autonomous vehicles and smart devices is discussed, with a focus on the need for ultra-low latency and edge computing.
Red Hat’s role in this evolving landscape is to provide the necessary cloud platforms and AI-enabled infrastructure to support these advancements. The podcast concludes with a forward-looking perspective on 5G’s ability to enable smart cities and digital twins, underscoring the need for affordable consumer devices and collaborative investment to realize these possibilities.
As 5G continues to evolve, its impact on both consumer and enterprise markets is poised to be transformative, offering new avenues for growth and innovation.
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Key Quotes From Fran Heeran:
- “The mass adoption of 5G has yet to happen. And one of the main drivers there has been the return on the investment required to build a 5G network.”
- “Fixed wireless access broadband does have significant potential in the African market that is as yet untapped.”
- “The real revenue opportunity and certainly for enterprises is going to be on broadband capability, low latency services, and the ability to onboard lots of these new generation of devices.”
- “Our focus here at Red Hat is to make sure that we are delivering the cloud platforms, the infrastructure, the AI-enabled infrastructure for that future in the telecoms market.”
