Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
💎 Reveal Undervalued Stocks Hiding in Any Market Get Started
Orange launches first African 5G network in Botswana
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of French telecom operator Orange is seen at the telecommunication company headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - French telecoms group Orange launched a new 5G network in Botswana on Friday in a first step towards rolling out the high-speed data offering to other markets in the Middle East and Africa, company executives said.
Following the initial Botswana launch, Orange's 5G coverage will extend to 30% of the southern African nation's population, including those living in Gaborone and Francistown, the two largest cities.
Coverage will be extended to other cities early next year, the company said.
While prices for 5G-enabled mobile handsets are dropping, they remain out of the reach of most Africans.
Instead, Orange is mainly focusing on 5G as a way of providing fast internet in Africa, where low population density makes rolling out fibre-optic infrastructure uneconomical.
"For us the main use case is fixed wireless access, meaning internet at home," Nene Maiga, CEO of Orange Botswana, told journalists ahead of the launch.
Africa and the Middle East, where Orange operates in 18 countries, account for over 60% of the company's total mobile customers and 6.4 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in revenue.
The region currently counts more than 44 million 4G customers.
Orange's Middle East and Africa CEO Jerome Henrique said the company was targeting 5G rollouts in around half a dozen countries in 2023, most likely starting with Jordan.
"There's already an agreement with the government on the conditions for launching 5G in Jordan. And most probably Ivory Coast and Senegal shall follow, but we're still discussing about regulatory conditions," he said.
(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous tag in headline)
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.