Stakeholders Brainstorming - ICT in South Africa - Emerging Tech.

On the back of a two-day conference in Johannesburg, I am proud to have been part of the panel of advisors to the state, representing South Africa, working with dignitaries, members of the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and ICASA, (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is an independent regulatory body of the South African government,) with major international carriers, held and facilitated by Dr. Luzango Mfupe, Principle Researcher, Dr. Lehlo Ledwaba, and Dr. Moses Dlamini, on the stakeholders' workshop "RSA Strategy for 5G and Emerging Technologies."

We held discussions with the state on Fifth Generation (5G/6G) cellular network technologies and beyond, addressing the promise of high-speed broadband communication, ultra-low latency, and massive machine-to-machine communication capabilities and spectrum required.

5G technology is seen as a prime driver for the uptake of applications of the digital industrial revolutions (DIRs). Over the past few years, 5G networks have started to be deployed in several parts of the world, including in South Africa. With 6G not far behind, as one who has worked on global projects, I can confidently say that we are not that far behind with our digital strategy as a country.

Responding to ICASA's state of ICT sector report of March 2023, regarding the coverage rate reaching only 20% in our region, it is important to note that, despite the promised benefits of 5G technology, there are also possible risks associated with it. As such, the full potential of the new advancing technology cannot be fully harnessed by any nation in the absence of a clear and pragmatic strategy is required on roll out and standards in these solutions.

In this context, the CSIR, in collaboration with invited key stakeholders and ICT consultants, engaged and brainstormed with representatives from the industry, academia, and research institutions on various strategic aspects of emerging technologies. The outcome of the ICT 4.0 urgent meeting is to be published and gazetted. In the meantime, 5G promises a wide range of disruptive use cases to address the needs of different traditional sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, energy, transport, and education.

Most of the use cases we put forward, such as autonomous vehicles, remote surgery, virtual/augmented reality, connected drones, and precision assembly (i.e., robotics), describe a creative future.

We spoke about South Africa and its unique challenges that demand practical solutions in terms of cost, and transformative potential, but focused on the digital skills required to take our country to the next positive step in technology evolution, outlining a more concentrated collaborative effort from the country's national system of innovation to identify and develop new exciting use cases which will address the social and economic challenges facing our country.

Our breakaway sessions with industry experts focused on imagining and refining technology: IoT, Machine Learning, Big Data, Blockchain, lights-out data centers, and new technologies such as smart water cooling in data centers and edge computing localized cloud, addressing energy conservation and ICT, all of which have the potential to revolutionize the way we currently communicate and the way we work under what is now known as Industry 4.0, with the rapid changes that are being brought about by the new technology landscape.

In our panel, We spoke on appropriate technologies that will take these strategies to the next level, adopting interoperability, legacy compatibility with emerging systems, the strategic conversations required including our digital divide, currently facing South Africa, job creation and losses, interactions expected technology advancements and end-user technology, this includes looking at the global state of adoption versus where South Africa is tracking, and what is needed for South Africa to be competitive in the upcoming years.

Together with carriers, we covered extensive topics: Technologies for improved network quality, speed, and flexibility; outlined capacity that necessitates Telcos, new technology on the horizon that will transform data as we know it, i.e., the use of laser networks connecting to satellites to carry big data solutions, locally across the country and into low MEO, and beyond, using technology in both land, sea, and air, necessitated software through AI development, a combination of current and emerging technologies (i.e. NFV, SDN, Microservices, cloud, SD WAN optimization, containerization, and most importantly localization), and the advanced progressive integrated software that will make 5G/6G Technology a reality.

We outlined technologies that promise multi-network slicing, multi-faced, and multi-technology capabilities of next-generation networks, addressed cybersecurity in these technologies, outlined guidelines for the state and the general public, decision-makers and policymakers, and the role of ML/AI and data transmission next steps in South Africa and our forward-thinking applications, digital twins, autonomy, but it all came down to how we as an industry have the bandwidth in place, or knowledge for now and future concepts. A progressive slide upwards in the right direction where technology and policymakers met.