Airtel to roll out 5G network in Kampala next week 

Telecom giant Airtel Uganda is set to start rolling out a fifth-generation (5G) mobile network across Kampala city next week.  

According to Manoj Murali, the managing director of Airtel Uganda, the company has secured the required 5G spectrum and they will next embark on the deployment exercise in Kampala.

Airtel indicated that they will deploy 5G in 50 sites beginning with areas such as; Parliament Avenue, Fairway hotel area, Speke Apartment, Crested towers among others.

The telecom indicated in February 2023 that their entire 4G network then, was 5G ready and had applied for the required spectrum to start rolling out this revolutionary technology. They indicated then that tests had been successful at 11 sites in Kampala.

5G is the 5th generation mobile network that enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices at very high speeds. 

It delivers higher multi-gbps peak data speeds, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users. 5G can support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometre compared to 4G which can only support up to 100,000 connected devices in a similar area.

This makes 5G the suitable network over which remote teams can collaborate to undertake tasks like surgery, shared online school classes, farmers can share live video farming tips, and engineering tasks over video and stream gaming and other entertainment experiences.

Murali said, “I am privileged to announce that the wait for 5G is over. We have gotten the required spectrum and shall begin deployment next week. We were able to transform the way people, businesses and communities connect and do business using 4G and are grateful to our partners for the support on that journey.

5G will revolutionise the way people, businesses and industries connect and improve their productivity because of the super-fast internet speeds. We are deeply honoured to be delivering yet another Airtel first”

“I would like to extend my gratitude to the regulator, UCC, partners like Huawei, ATC and the media for the support on this journey” Murali concluded.

5G is famed for its immense applications in Home broadband activities like gaming, virtual reality, and other entertainment. In manufacturing, commercial agriculture, smart grids, 5G is useful for condition monitoring and other industrial applications.

In health and education, 5G is important for the delivery of fast high-definition (HD) videos for services like telemedicine and smart e-learning.