The Africa Net5.5G IP Gala Summit, themed "Bring Net5.5G to Reality, Inspire New Growth", concluded successfully as part of the 27th African Communications Exhibition (AfricaCom) 2024. Leading carriers from Southern Africa, industry organisations, government agencies and device vendors came together to share use cases on the evolution to Net5.5G converged IP networks and industry digitalisation. During the summit, the World Broadband Association (WBBA), the IPv6 Forum, the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), Technology Service Providers of Kenya (TESPOK), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), MTN Group and MTN South Africa jointly launched the Africa Net5.5G Action Plan Initiative. This calls on industry stakeholders to accelerate the commercial rollout of Net5.5G and foster its prosperity. Southern Africa has become the first region to implement the UBBF Net5.5G Pioneer Program.

ATU Secretary-General John OMO emphasised that Africa stands at a pivotal juncture in its digital transformation. Embracing Net5.5G will enable the continent to build more resilient and flexible network infrastructures that cater to the diverse needs of the AI era. Further, this technological leap will help address increasingly growing traffic, bridge the digital divide and foster sustainable development.

WBBA Network Technology work group chair Tayeb Meriem shared insights into global network development trends in the AI era and offered suggestions for further evolution. He pointed out that carriers and enterprise customers require a differentiated experience from networks as bandwidth requirements and the number of connections for applications like AI-generated content are constantly climbing. Carriers' existing brownfield data communication networks are inappropriate for meeting these bandwidth-hungry AI applications

To address these challenges, WBBA defined the Net5.5G target architecture, including Wi-Fi 7, 400GE/800GE bearer network, AI data centre network, and network digital map, to help carriers upgrading their networks to build a high-speed and high-quality network infrastructure.

At the summit, leading global carriers including MTN Group and MTN South Africa shared their commercial use cases of Net5.5G. MTN Group GM of Multinational Clients Magatho Mello shared that his team is proactively executing its B2B strategy and is delighted to partner with Huawei in delivering secure multi-branch connectivity to customers through the innovative SASE Solution. This will further consolidate MTN's leading position in Africa's enterprise market as the rollout of Net5.5G gathers pace, enabling customers to expedite their intelligent transformation.

MTN South Africa GM of Network Planning Zoltan Miklos shared best practices for Net5.5G IP networks. He said that MTN South Africa supports the Net5.5G network architecture framework, actively implements commercial deployment of key technologies such as 400GE, network digital map and SRv6, and strives to build high-quality IP networks in the AI era to provide excellent service experience for users.

In the AI era, mature and robust technical standard systems, coupled with leading Net5.5G solutions, are crucial. According to Futurewei VP of Strategy Planning Alvaro Retana, key Net5.5G standards like 400GE, SRv6, Network Digital Map and network slicing have reached maturity and are being deployed at scale, making them optimal technologies for IP networks in this new era.

Huawei Data Communication Standard & Patent Department Director Kaiyin Zhu, delivered a speech titled “Net5.5G Converged IP Network, Inspiring New Growth”. In his speech, Zhu highlighted that along with the upgrade to Net5.5G, Huawei will help carriers build Net5.5G converged IP networks to stimulate new growth by leveraging key capabilities such as 400GE/800GE, elastic experience assurance based on SRv6 and slicing, and ADN L4–powered Network Digital Map.

For Net5.5G to thrive, governments must provide industry policy guidance, and carriers must continue to construct Net5.5G networks.

To accelerate the commercial deployment of Net5.5G in Southern Africa, the Net5.5G Pioneer Program Award Ceremony was held at the summit. MTN South Africa, Econet Zimbabwe and Vuma South Africa won the Net5.5G Commercial Pioneer Award in recognition of their 400GE、SRv6 and Network Digital Map Deployment, while Communications Authority of Kenya and Nigeria NITDA won the Net5.5G Policy Pioneer Award in recognition of their IPv6 Migration Policy and Future Network Infrastructure Policy.