Safaricom has extended its infrastructure partnership with Ericsson through a multi-year microwave agreement that will supply E-band and multi-band equipment across Kenya, enabling the carrier to deliver high-capacity 5G services nationwide and already achieving backhaul speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second in remote areas of North Kenya over distances exceeding 100 kilometres.
Under the agreement, Ericsson will supply all-outdoor E-band and multi-band products from its energy-efficient MINI-LINK portfolio, a scalable range designed to handle the growing data volumes that 5G networks generate at the radio access layer. Ericsson also plans to integrate AI-driven analytics and automation into Safaricom’s transport network in the near term, enabling more intelligent traffic management and faster fault resolution. Gerishon Gitonga Kithinji, Head of Network Planning and Design at Safaricom, said the microwave deal would allow the operator to enhance high-performance 5G delivery and improve customer satisfaction. Alain Maupin, Ericsson’s Vice President and Head of East and North Africa, described the transport network as essential for connecting all nodes within the radio access network and the core of the 5G system. The two companies have worked together since at least 2021, when they jointly deployed the MINI-LINK 6352 to deliver multi-Gbps mobile broadband backhaul capacity.
The deal comes as mobile broadband data consumption in Kenya continues to climb sharply, putting pressure on operators to expand backhaul capacity ahead of congestion. According to Ericsson’s 2024 Microwave Outlook report, approximately 10 million microwave and millimetre-wave transceivers are installed globally, and in Africa these links using traditional frequency bands have historically formed the backbone of mobile network infrastructure. The shift to E-band and multi-band configurations represents the next phase of that foundation, capable of carrying the multi-gigabit traffic loads that 5G radio equipment generates.
The Bigger Picture Wireless backhaul is the invisible constraint on 5G rollout across Africa. Building fibre to every base station is economically unviable across the distances and terrain that define markets like Kenya, which means microwave and millimetre-wave links determine how much of 5G’s theoretical capacity actually reaches users. Safaricom’s agreement with Ericsson addresses that bottleneck directly and sets the transport foundation for the denser, higher-throughput network that enterprise 5G services require. The AI integration layer adds a second dimension: networks that can anticipate load and self-optimise reduce operating costs and improve reliability, which matters in markets where technical staff capacity is limited relative to the geographic spread of infrastructure. For Safaricom, which sits at the centre of Kenya’s digital economy through M-Pesa and enterprise connectivity, the quality of its 5G transport layer is not just a technology choice but a competitive and commercial one.
Source: Ghanamma
