Africa leading operator MTN, in collaboration with Huawei, announced the world’s first large-scale deployment of the Alpha Antenna in Ghana.
This milestone represents a substantial enhancement in network performance, with the transition to intelligent and AI-driven innovation establishing a new benchmark for the evolution toward autonomous driving networks in Africa and globally.
This deployment has validated groundbreaking performance improvements and operational efficiencies. Post-deployment tests recorded a rise in regional traffic by 6.8%, while improving operations and maintenance efficiency by a factor of 30x.
World’s first large-scale Alpha Antenna deployed by MTN Ghana and Huawei
Confronting persistent network operations and maintenance challenges of manual dependency, slow adaptation, and inconsistent accuracy, MTN has unlocked a new paradigm through the Alpha Antenna deployment. The solution’s integrated AISU (Antenna Information Sensor Unit) enables fully automated, real-time, and precise retrieval of antenna parameters, eliminating manual site visits. The AIMU (Array Information Mapping Unit) ensures real-time and exact visualization of network topology, eradicating configuration errors. Furthermore, it supports remote adjustment of multi-dimensional beams, allowing the network to dynamically adapt coverage and capacity to real-time demands, collapsing optimization cycles from weeks to minutes while delivering a consistently superior user experience.
The Alpha antenna is driving a paradigm shift in network operations by endowing networks with closed-loop capabilities for “real-time retrieval, precise control, and dynamic optimization”—transitioning from passive, reactive manual intervention to a proactive, AI-powered model. This transition provides a crucial “digital foundation” for MTN in building a high-level Autonomous Driving Network (ADN), making self-optimization and autonomous evolution of the network a reality.
MTN Ghana states that the Alpha Antenna solution represents a pivotal step toward the full digital transformation of network infrastructure. It not only significantly reduces operational complexity and costs but, more importantly, empowers the network with real-time retrieval and rapid-response capabilities. This successful collaboration with Huawei has laid a solid foundation for future AI-driven intelligent networks, injecting fresh momentum into Africa’s digital transformation.
