This year, Kenya's telecom regulator is set to deploy its 5G network on a pilot basis. Matano Ndaro, director of licensing, compliance and standards at the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), announced that the regulator has developed a roadmap that outlines strategies to facilitate the deployment of this project. CA will start authorizing the first 5G pilot projects this year, then release the required spectrum bands and finally issue commercial 5G licenses.
"We are now set to hold a validation workshop in the next one month to discuss the comments received. Once we adopt the input from the stakeholders, we shall establish a national 5G forum and allocate pilot frequencies," said Matano Ndaro.
With this step, the regulator joins a number of telecom companies that launched 5G last year, including market leader Safaricom, which deployed 5G into major cities across the country . As well, many phone manufacturers have launched their 5G-compatible models in Kenya, even though the devices are currently too expensive for the average Kenyan.
Operators will be able to satisfy growing digital demand and adopt new consumption patterns with ultra-fast connectivity, among other things, that the regulator is preparing; these include smart homes and buildings, 3D video, streaming, cloud-based work and play, remote medical services, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
