Telecommunication giant, Safaricom PLC will on Friday 26th March 2021 unveil the 5G network in partnership with Nokia Corporation and Huawei Technologies.
The commercial launch follows several trials by Safaricom since 2018 according to media reports.
The telco was cleared by the Communications Authority as early as 2020 to launch 5G services in the country and the telco has since been preparing to roll out the network.
Safaricom 5G infrastructure was being built by the Chinese firm, Huawei Technologies despite US warnings in 2020 to countries against including Huawei in their 5G rollouts, citing that China may use that as a security breach.
Safaricom previously announced its intentions to use Huawei as the supplier for the 5G rollout with its chairman Michael Joseph saying at the time that they would follow guidelines from their two main shareholders, South Africa’s Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone.
MTN Uganda launched 5G services in Uganda in January 2020, making Uganda the first country in East Africa to launch the service. In Africa, other countries like South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt pioneered the service.
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