Ericsson on Africa and the impact of AI at MWC 26

Details: James Barton; Category: Vendors; 13 March 2026; 12401 views

During MWC26 Barcelona Developing Telecoms’ Director of Content James Barton sat down with Majda Lahlou Kassi, Vice President and Head of Ericsson West and Southern Africa, to discuss Ericsson’s current strategy and focus areas in Africa and the potential impact AI may have on telecom networks and services across the region in the future.

Where does your focus lie at MWC26 in relation to emerging markets - and particularly in relation to Africa?

This year is about exploring new horizons. It is about looking at what we can achieve with the networks and connectivity that Ericsson builds, and recognizing how AI is taking a central place in everyone’s strategy. At the same time, we must acknowledge that AI is creating increasing demands for compute capacity and Networks performance.

From Ericsson’s standpoint, it is very important that AI and networks evolve in parallel. Only then can we truly unlock the full potential of AI through high-performing networks.

This theme is particularly relevant in the context of Africa. What we are seeing is that AI requires high-performing networks, and this is where 5G Standalone and 5G advanced become especially important, particularly in enabling specific use cases. At the same time, AI is now embedded across the entire portfolio. For us, AI is not simply an additional layer, it is integrated in the end to end solutions.

At MWC Barcelona 2026, we are showcasing more than ten new launches in the radio segment, including AI-enabled radios. AI is not limited to the hardware layer, it is also embedded in the core and the BSS.

Our overarching theme is that AI is helping make networks more autonomous, while at the same time networks enable AI to achieve more. In other words, it is a dual objective: AI enhances the network, and the network unlocks the full potential of AI.

Ericsson is also exploring new horizons in how we deliver the best 5G connectivity for use cases such as public safety. A significant part of our focus is on mission-critical networks. These networks are increasingly connected with AI capabilities that enhance the detection of earthquakes, fires, floods, and other natural disasters, and can trigger automated responses to help manage such events.

With AI, these use cases can also be replicated and scaled across multiple domains, enabling faster response and greater resilience in critical situations.

Another important use case we see for AI is in healthcare, agritech and education, where the combination of network capabilities, AI, and the cloud can significantly accelerate the digitalization of multiple sectors.

We also see 5G enabling new enterprise use cases, particularly in industries such as mining and port management. Ericsson offers a compact, plug-and-play solution based on 5G technology that allows organizations to deploy private networks across a range of sectors. Mining and ports are critical industries in Africa, and solutions like these can help accelerate their digital transformation and support the broader digitalization of the continent.

Another very interesting development is that we are seeing in some of the countries which were early adopters of 5G, that there is now an uptake of traffic, in some countries as high as 30%.

For larger adoption in Africa, addressing the affordability challenge will be key. We need to make sure that 5G devices become more affordable, but also from a technology point of view, we need to work on decoupling the growth in traffic from increased power consumption. Power is an important cost element in the context of Africa, so affordability and sustainability are central to our strategy in Africa.

In addition, Africa must continue advancing both digital and financial inclusion. We are actively expanding our mobile financial services and operate one of the continent’s leading financial services ecosystems. This builds on Ericsson’s long‑standing partnership with MTN across all their markets, where we have seen remarkable growth over the past year.

I want to talk more about sustainability, because it is a key element of what is going on in Africa. There are a lot of issues with power use in the infrastructure and data centres which will only increase with the deployment of AI, so I want to know more about what is being done to address these issues by Ericsson.

The power element is very important in our sustainability strategy. This is centred around breaking down the energy cycle, so that when operators experience a surge in traffic, energy consumption does not increase by as much; this is an integral part of how we design our products.

Every new product generation is more efficient than the generation before. In some of the very recent launches, we can see drastic reduction in power consumption - up to 30 to 40%, depending on site configurations.

This is essential, but in addition to this, we are looking at how we can leverage our solar energy for rural sites. We have a new rural site solution that is 100% powered by solar energy, which makes it cost efficient and energy efficient.

We are also strongly focused on developing digital skills, as education and training remain essential pillars for Africa’s digital transformation. Ericsson has established partnerships with governments across the continent to deliver our education and training programmes. These initiatives are rolled out in schools and in dedicated learning hubs for adults, enabling us to support underserved communities by sharing our expertise and know‑how.

You mentioned various government partnerships. Africa is a very young continent. People are eager to learn. Can you tell me more about your education partnerships with governments?

We have formalized collaborations through MOUs in various regions across Africa and are implementing targeted programs in specific countries — such as Nigeria, where we are actively pursuing dedicated initiatives. In South Africa, our partnership focuses on advancing digital skills for underserved communities as a key component of the project. Additionally, in Senegal, we have launched the Connect to Learn initiative to further support education and digital inclusion.

These programs reflect the many initiatives we have implemented across our footprint. They are part of our broader contribution to bringing knowledge to more people and supporting the aspiration for everyone to have access to the same technology.

You have mentioned areas where AI is being used in your networks. How big is the potential for AI in Africa?

AI is not an add on layer - it is embedded in every solution and every product that we have. And it is true that with generative AI and agentic AI, we are seeing more advanced use cases. I can mention a few things that we are deploying in Africa, for example in leveraging optimised metrics.

In new technologies like 5G we have cognitive software that can provide early detection of faults, optimise usage of capacity limited assets such as spectrum, and provide asset swaps so that we achieve better capacity allocation and use, and better tools and applications. This is an aspect of AI we have built it in all our software.

What are Ericsson’s top priorities for the next 12 months in Africa?

In Africa, we are focusing on new opportunities that deliver a positive return on investment for both our partners and ourselves. We have identified three key priorities.

The first priority is how we can leverage AI to improve efficiency across our operations. This includes enhancing spectrum efficiency, improving energy and power usage, and increasing overall operational efficiency.

Secondly, we are focused on how we can leverage AI to enhance the end-user experience for both businesses and consumers. This involves examining all the tools available to us to improve the overall end-to-end network customer experience.

Thirdly, our focus is on monetization—how we can leverage AI to create new use cases for our partners and customers, enabling them to better monetize their investments. Today, many of our partners are developing their AI strategies, and we aim to support them by providing guidance and creating opportunities to cooperate and co-innovate across the region.