Huawei makes a major announcement at AfricaCom 2025, unveiling customized 5G solutions for Africa with download speeds exceeding 2Gbps, addressing key deployment challenges.

Cape Town, South Africa, November 11, 2025 – During AfricaCom 2025, Africa's premier telecommunications industry event, Chen Shi, Vice President of Marketing for Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled "Innovation Unleashes a Golden Decade for Africa's Mobile Industry," officially launching the dual-band MetaAAU and EasyAAU 5G equipment solutions tailored for the African market, as well as the industry's first Single SitePower single-site power system. This integrated "communication + energy" solution precisely addresses three core pain points in Africa: insufficient network coverage, high deployment costs, and unstable power supply.  Field tests showed 5G download speeds exceeding 2Gbps and power availability reaching 99.99%, injecting strong momentum into the large-scale popularization of 5G and the development of the digital economy in Africa.
Summit Background: Accelerated 5G Penetration in Africa, Infrastructure Bottlenecks Remain
According to the "Africa 5G Market Status and Trends Report" released by GSMA Intelligence in October 2025, as of September 2025, 53 operators in 29 African markets had launched commercial 5G services, and operators in another 14 countries had clearly defined 5G deployment plans. 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has become a core growth point for operators' short-term revenue increase, with 25 African operators already implementing related services. However, Africa's unique geographical and economic conditions present multiple challenges to 5G construction: uneven urban and rural development leads to a significant digital divide, with rural areas having dispersed villages and lacking access to mains electricity; urban hotspots face spectrum resource constraints and insufficient coverage efficiency from traditional equipment; and frequent power outages in weak power grid environments result in poor base station stability. These issues severely restrict the speed and quality of 5G network construction in Africa.
Against this backdrop, Huawei, focusing on five scenario-based innovations – "New Traffic, New Experience, New Business, New Connectivity, and New Energy Saving" – launched customized solutions adapted to the African market, becoming a key highlight of AfricaCom 2025 and attracting significant attention from leading African operators such as MTN South Africa, Airtel Nigeria, and Safaricom Kenya. Dual-band MetaAAU + EasyAAU: A Dual Breakthrough in Extreme Performance and Simplified Deployment

Huawei's newly released dual-band MetaAAU solution is a core product specifically designed for Africa, addressing the challenges of fragmented spectrum resources and strong coverage demands in high-traffic areas. This device integrates ultra-large antenna array (ELAA) technology, supporting simultaneous coverage of both 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz bands. Through independent array design, it achieves parallel processing of both frequency bands, increasing coverage efficiency by 30% compared to traditional equipment without increasing deployment costs. Its 64TR configuration supports an ultra-wide bandwidth of 400MHz, enabling a single device to deliver a large capacity output of 20Gbps, easily meeting the high-density access needs of hotspots such as large stadiums and commercial centers, providing users with a "gigabit for everyone" network experience.
As the industry's lightest AAU module, Huawei's EasyAAU completely solves the convenience challenges of deployment in African urban and rural areas. This product utilizes Meta metamaterial blade antenna technology, reducing weight by half compared to traditional 8T RRUs, significantly increasing integration, and integrating the antenna and radio frequency unit into a single design.  It eliminates complex installation procedures, shortening deployment time by 40% and reducing construction costs by 35% compared to traditional solutions. Its flexible adaptability covers multiple scenarios, including urban wall mounting and simple pole mounting in suburban areas, making it particularly suitable for the rapid network deployment needs of rural areas in Africa. Actual test data shows that when the dual-band MetaAAU and EasyAAU are deployed together, the 5G downlink speed is 3.2 times faster than traditional solutions, the uplink speed is 4 times faster, and the peak download speed exceeds 2Gbps, setting a new record for 5G network performance in Africa.
A technical expert from Huawei's wireless network product line stated that both devices support seamless evolution to 5G-A, allowing for on-demand scheduling of capacity resources, helping operators achieve "one-time deployment, long-term benefits," and effectively reducing total cost of ownership. Guided by the innovative concept of "All Bands to Massive MIMO," this solution is also compatible with existing 4G mid-band resources in Africa, enabling collaborative optimization of 4G and 5G networks and addressing the challenge of traffic congestion. Single SitePower Single-Site Power System: AI-Enabled Solution to Address Power Instability Challenges
Addressing the reality that up to 60% of sites in Africa face frequent power outages, Huawei simultaneously launched the industry's first Single SitePower single-site power system.  Through four intelligent collaborative technologies, it builds a resilient power supply network, increasing site power availability from 60% to 99.99% in weak grid environments, completely solving the industry pain point of "power outage equals network outage."
The core innovation of this system lies in its AI-driven multi-energy collaborative scheduling capabilities:  Solar-storage collaboration technology enables 100% utilization of solar energy, increasing power generation by 55% compared to traditional solutions, especially suitable for areas in Africa with abundant solar resources; grid adaptive technology can cope with extreme grid environments such as frequent power outages and voltage fluctuations, ensuring stable operation of base stations even after mains power interruption; the unique adaptive backup power technology increases the backup power duration for communication services by more than 100% with the same battery configuration, achieving a breakthrough from 2.5 hours to 7 hours in European tests, fully meeting the needs of long-term power outage scenarios in Africa; and the service collaboration function uses AI diagnostics to achieve precise fault location and accurate energy scheduling, combined with a unified wireless and energy O&M platform, reducing operating costs (OPEX) by 50%.
In terms of hardware design, Single SitePower adopts a combination of blade power supply and outdoor blade lithium batteries.  Through butterfly design and biomimetic root-like fin heat dissipation technology, it achieves completely natural cooling, requiring no land occupation and no maintenance, and can adapt to the high temperature and high humidity outdoor environment of Africa. Its modular architecture supports multiple energy inputs such as mains power, solar energy, and generators. One cabinet per site meets current deployment needs while reserving space for future expansion, adapting to network upgrades and ICT convergence evolution.
Market Impact: Accelerating Digital Inclusion in Africa and Activating New Industrial Momentum
The series of solutions released by Huawei not only specifically addresses the technical pain points of 5G construction in Africa but also highly aligns with the business needs of African operators. A GSMA report points out that 5G has become a core engine for the growth of Africa's digital economy, and the affordability and reliability of infrastructure are key factors determining the speed of 5G adoption. Huawei's dual-band MetaAAU and EasyAAU, with their simplified deployment features, can help operators significantly reduce site construction costs and rapidly expand network coverage.  Single SitePower, through green energy utilization and intelligent O&M, continuously reduces operating energy consumption and maintenance expenditures, creating a sustainable business model for operators.

The CTO of MTN Group in South Africa stated at the summit: "The African market needs not just simple technology transfer, but innovative solutions that truly adapt to local needs. Huawei's dual-band MetaAAU and Single SitePower address our three core challenges in coverage, cost, and power supply. We look forward to accelerating 5G coverage across South African cities and rural areas through this collaboration, bringing digital services to more people."
In addition to core communication and energy solutions, Huawei also launched rural networking solutions such as RuralLink and RuralStar, as well as the Easy FWAi home broadband solution at this summit, forming a full-scenario product matrix covering "urban hotspots - town coverage - rural inclusion," helping Africa bridge the digital divide. According to Huawei's forecast, with the large-scale deployment of these solutions, the 5G user penetration rate in Africa is expected to increase from less than 10% currently to over 30% in the next three years, driving a growth of over $50 billion in the digital economy.
Industry Outlook: Building the African 5G Ecosystem Together with Partners
Chen Shi, Vice President of Marketing for Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, emphasized in his speech that the golden decade of the African mobile industry requires collaborative innovation from all parties in the industry chain. Huawei will uphold the concept of open cooperation, deeply collaborate with African operators, tower companies, and industry organizations, sharing technical experience and ecological resources to promote the in-depth application of 5G in education, healthcare, agriculture, and other industries. Addressing the local talent development needs in Africa, Huawei will also continue to promote the "Seeds for the Future" program to cultivate more communication technology talents for Africa and support the independent development of the industry.
At this AfricaCom 2025 summit, Huawei's customized solutions not only demonstrated its global leading position in 5G technology but also reflected its "customer-centric" innovation philosophy. With the gradual implementation of dual-band MetaAAU, EasyAAU, and Single SitePower, African 5G network construction will enter a new stage of "high performance, low cost, and high reliability," bringing broader digital development opportunities to this vibrant continent and accelerating the realization of the vision of "universal access and intelligent connectivity."