In what is now a fight for faster, bigger, and better, Airtel Kenya has revealed that it has 600 sites all over the country which have so far been upgraded to the 5G network.
Speaking to BD, Airtel said the deployment of 5G-ready networks would help it capitalize on the rising mobile Internet demand in the country. The move comes just days after Safaricom became the first telco to unveil the superfast bandwidth in the country.
“These 600 sites are now 5G-ready. We don’t have to make any further modifications to the network. We will just get the spectrum and decide when to switch on,” Airtel Kenya managing director Prasanta Das Sarma told journalists.
Mr. Sarma says that there is no rush to switch on Airtel’s 5G network, speculating it will happen in one to two years when the firm expects the cost of handsets will fall.
“The 5G handsets right now are obviously very costly and see few buys. We feel that a reasonable price will start coming in one and a half to two years.”
“That is the time we feel we will be able to switch on our 5G network. But if things happen faster, we are ready for it.”
