Two Telecoms Leaders on Infrastructure, AI and the Next Decade

Ahead of Africa Tech Festival's Telecoms and Connectivity week, we spoke with two of our speakers, Norbert Prihoda, Tunisie Telecom, and Rich Cazalet, Telkom, about what it really takes to close Africa's connectivity gap, why the continent's growth story is far from cooling, and where the industry's hardest conversations still need to happen.

There Is No Single Fix for the Connectivity Gap

Connectivity gaps, whether in fibre backbone, mobile broadband, or last-mile access, are routinely cited as one of the biggest barriers to digital inclusion in Africa. So what does a workable connectivity strategy actually look like on the ground, and what single change would move the needle furthest?

Norbert Prihoda, Tunisie Telecom, starts from a simple principle: connectivity is a system, not a single technology.

"The honest answer is that there is no single connectivity strategy — there are many, and they need to be layered. The error most often made, by investors and policymakers alike, is searching for a single infrastructure solution: if we just build the backbone, or just deploy more towers, the rest will follow. It doesn't. Connectivity is a stack problem. You need international gateways, national backbone, regional distribution, and last-mile access all pulling in the same direction, or you end up with fast highways leading to dirt roads."

This isn't theoretical. At Tunisie Telecom, an ambitious all-optical network transformation is underway, actively migrating from copper to fibre across the country, including in areas like Tataouine in the deep south that are not the obvious commercial bet.

"Why? Because we believe that if you only build connectivity where the immediate return is clear, you will always leave the same people behind. Infrastructure has to be planned at a national scale, not just a commercial one."

On the technology front, the recent launch of Fiber-to-the-Room (FTTR), extending optical fibre not just to the building but into every room of the home, is framed as more than a convenience upgrade.

"That is a meaningful upgrade in quality of experience, and it matters because connectivity is only transformative when it is reliable and fast enough to actually change what people can do with it. Gigabit connectivity at home is not a luxury; for a family where children study remotely and parents work from home, it is infrastructure as critical as electricity."

But pressed on the one change with the highest multiplier effect across the continent, the answer is unambiguous:

"Proactive spectrum policy — specifically, making low-band spectrum available faster and at lower cost to operators willing to commit to rural coverage obligations. The physics of low-band spectrum means you cover far more ground per tower, which changes the economics of reaching underserved populations completely. Tunisia's regulators allocated both 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands as part of our 5G licensing process, and the early results are encouraging. That model — pairing valuable spectrum with real coverage commitments — is one the continent should replicate at scale."

Richard Cazalet, Telkom, sees the same layered logic playing out further south, alongside a structural imbalance that is becoming harder to ignore.

"A workable connectivity strategy in Africa today is integrated, not siloed. On the ground, the model is clear: fibre provides the backbone and capacity, mobile (4G/5G, FWA) delivers reach and flexibility, and targeted last-mile solutions close the final gaps."

"In South Africa, we're seeing the benefits of this layered approach — but also a growing challenge: fibre overbuild in dense urban areas, while large parts of the country remain underserved."

The numbers behind that imbalance are stark: fibre-to-home penetration in Africa sits at only around 5%, against roughly 30% globally, while overall fibre penetration is around 35% compared with approximately 56% globally.

"So, the biggest unlock is not another technology — it's better coordination of capital and infrastructure. The single biggest change would be to incentivise infrastructure sharing and integrated network planning. That ensures we move from duplication in cities to coverage where it matters most."

Why the "Cooling" Narrative Misses the Real Story

There's a persistent narrative that Africa's telecoms growth story has cooled, that progress is slower than expected and harder to sustain. Is that a fair read, and what are people misunderstanding about connectivity demand?

For Norbert Prihoda, the narrative conflates two entirely separate things.

"I find that narrative frustrating, because it confuses two very different things: the pace of stock market returns and the pace of infrastructure transformation. Investors who expected the same curve as mobile voice adoption in the 2000s have been disappointed. But if you look at what is actually happening on the ground — the demand picture — it tells a very different story."

Tunisia is offered as a reference point. By 2025, nearly 80% of the population are internet users, 4G reaches 95% of inhabitants, and commercial 5G launched in February 2025, ahead of most regional peers. Electronic transactions reached the equivalent of $8.8 billion in 2024, up over 10% year-on-year, driven by mobile payments and digital wallets.

"That is not a cooling story. That is a society that has absorbed connectivity and is now building economic life on top of it."

The deeper misunderstanding, in this view, is about what demand looks like at this stage of the growth curve.

"In the voice era, demand was simple: more people, more SIMs, more minutes. In the broadband era, demand is multidimensional. It shows up as data consumption per user growing even when subscriber numbers plateau. It shows up as businesses migrating to cloud services. It shows up as governments digitising public administration — Tunisia alone has committed to 138 digital transformation projects between 2025 and 2026. None of that is visible in subscriber counts, but all of it drives infrastructure investment."

AI is identified as the next major demand driver and the real test for operators.

"Connectivity demand from AI applications — inference at the edge, real-time translation, health diagnostics, agricultural monitoring — is going to be transformative for African networks. The question is not whether demand is there; it is whether operators can evolve fast enough to serve it with the right quality of experience. That is the race I am focused on."

Richard Cazalet agrees the demand story hasn't cooled, but argues the real shift is in the economics behind it.

"The demand story hasn't cooled — it's just getting harder. Across Africa, data demand continues to rise strongly, and fixed broadband subscriptions are expected to grow +41% between 2023 and 2028."

"What's changing is the economics. The first wave of growth — urban connectivity — was relatively straightforward. The next wave — rural and underserved areas — is structurally more complex: lower income levels, lower population density, higher cost to serve."

"So, the narrative of slowing growth is misleading. The reality is: demand is strong — but unlocking it becomes progressively more difficult outside core markets. The real shift is from a coverage challenge to a sustainability challenge."

What Real Progress Looks Like in the Next Three Years

Looking three years ahead, what would genuine progress in African telecoms and connectivity look like, and what needs to happen between now and then to get there?

Norbert Prihoda frames the next three years around three parallel shifts.

"Real progress, by 2028, would look like three things happening simultaneously across the continent."

First, fibre becoming the standard for home broadband in urban and peri-urban Africa, with copper retirement underway in markets that have it.

"We are doing this in Tunisia right now — the logic is clear. Optical networks have lower maintenance costs, longer lifespans, and carry capacity that copper simply cannot match as demand grows. The model we have developed — using existing civil works infrastructure to dramatically reduce rollout cost — is replicable. Tunisia is being watched as a proof point for full-fibre transformation in the African context, and I hope we can contribute something useful to the broader industry conversation."

Second, 5G evolving beyond a headline technology into a genuine platform for enterprise and public-sector transformation.

"Smart agriculture, connected health facilities, intelligent transport — these are not distant use cases. Tunisia's national digital strategy explicitly links 5G to exactly these sectors. The challenge is ensuring that 5G rollout happens in conjunction with the applications that justify it, not in isolation. Operators, governments, and vertical industries need to build those use cases together, not wait for each other."

Third, and described as perhaps the most important, a fundamental shift in how the industry thinks about the consumer relationship.

"Connectivity is a commodity only if you let it become one. The operators who will win the next decade are those who move from being pipe providers to becoming trusted digital partners for their customers — in the home, for the family, for the small business owner. That means AI-personalised services, premium broadband tiers that genuinely deliver on their promise, and customer experience that rivals the best technology companies in the world. That is not aspirational thinking. That was the core of my keynote at last year's Africa Tech Festival: how AI and digitalisation transform connectivity into something premium and personalised."

Getting there, in this view, depends on three enablers: "Regulatory frameworks that reward long-term network investment rather than just managing short-term competition. Access to capital that is priced in recognition of infrastructure's long-term return profile. And genuine cross-sector collaboration — because no operator can build the digital economy alone."

For Richard Cazalet, the next three years will be defined by a different addition to the connectivity stack entirely: low Earth orbit satellite.

"Over the next three years, progress will be defined by reach, resilience and integration. We should expect continued fibre expansion to support capacity and enterprise growth, broader 4G/5G and FWA coverage, and critically, the rise of LEO satellite as a complement."

"LEO is a game changer for the hardest-to-reach areas: rapid deployment where fibre isn't viable, extends coverage into remote regions, and provides resilience and redundancy for national networks."

"The model is shifting to multi-layered networks — fibre, mobile, FWA and satellite working together. But technology alone won't deliver this. We also need smarter spectrum and regulatory frameworks, greater infrastructure sharing, and stronger public-private partnerships."

The Conversations the Industry Hasn't Had Openly Enough

Looking ahead to Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town this November, what are they most looking forward to discussing, and what's the conversation about connectivity the industry needs to have but hasn't had openly enough yet?

Norbert Prihoda values the festival precisely because the conversations there don't shy away from difficulty.

"I keep coming back to Africa Tech Festival because the conversations are honest. It is a room where people are genuinely grappling with difficult problems, not performing optimism for an investor audience. That matters to me."

This year, the focus is on the intersection of AI and network operations.

"We are at a point where the complexity of managing modern networks — the sheer volume of data, the number of variables — is pushing beyond what human operations teams can handle alone. AI-driven network management is not a future concept; it is something we are actively deploying. I want to understand how peers across the continent are approaching this, what is working, and where the obstacles are."

But the conversation he believes the industry has been reluctant to have openly is about the sustainability of the current investment model.

"Building and maintaining the infrastructure Africa needs is enormously capital-intensive. The returns on that capital take time to materialise. Meanwhile, the regulatory frameworks in many markets, and the expectations of international investors, are calibrated for shorter cycles. The result is chronic underinvestment in the markets that need infrastructure most."

He doesn't see this as unsolvable.

"Tunisia has shown that when a government takes a clear, long-term strategic position — the Digital Tunisia 2025 programme, the 5G licensing framework, the partnerships with multilateral institutions like the World Bank and EBRD — operators can make the case for major investment with confidence. But we need more of that partnership model, and we need to talk honestly about what it requires from all sides: regulators, operators, investors, and governments. Cape Town in November feels like exactly the right place to have that conversation."

Richard Cazalet's answer points to a related but distinct fault line: the industry's tendency to debate technologies against each other, rather than how to combine them.

"I'm most looking forward to moving the conversation beyond connectivity silos to integrated connectivity. For too long, the debate has been fibre vs mobile vs satellite. The real opportunity is: how we combine them to deliver better outcomes at lower cost."

"At Telkom, our strategy is increasingly centred on leveraging our national infrastructure to deliver converged, end-to-end connectivity solutions, not standalone products."

"The industry needs to have a more open conversation about: capital efficiency — avoiding overbuild while expanding coverage; collaboration — across operators, governments and new entrants; and economic sustainability — especially in lower-income markets."

"We also need to be honest: not every technology works everywhere — and no single model will close the gap. The future of connectivity in Africa is not about choosing technologies — it's about integrating them into a coherent, scalable system."

Continue the Conversation in Cape Town

Two operators, two markets, one shared conclusion: closing Africa's connectivity gap is no longer a question of which technology wins, but of how fibre, mobile, satellite, capital and policy are coordinated to reach the people core markets have already left behind. Funding long-cycle infrastructure in a short-cycle investment climate, turning 5G and fibre into platforms for real economic transformation, and integrating fibre, mobile and LEO satellite into a single coherent system: these are exactly the kind of honest, unresolved industry conversations that will be playing out on stage and on the show floor at Africa Tech Festival, Cape Town, 17–19 November 2026.

If you're an operator, investor, regulator, or technology partner grappling with these same questions, this is where the continent's telecoms and connectivity leaders come together to work through them in the open.

Register now to join the conversation at #AfricaTechFestival 2026.