Investment in high-capacity digital infrastructure and optical networks will become increasingly important as African countries pursue industrialisation, digital transformation and greater economic competitiveness amid growing AI adoption and rising global economic uncertainty.

This was the sentiment shared by Huawei executives during the company’s OptiX Club 2026 event, held in Johannesburg on April 21.

The event brought together more than 120 customers, partners and industry stakeholders to discuss how AI and intelligent applications are reshaping enterprise connectivity requirements across sectors, including energy, mining, transport, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics.

The discussions reflected broader trends across Africa’s evolving trade and investment landscape, where governments and businesses are increasingly prioritising infrastructure modernisation, industrial diversification and digital connectivity to support economic growth and regional integration.

Growing demand for cloud computing, AI workloads and digitalised industries was in turn accelerating the need for more advanced and reliable digital infrastructure, said Huawei Southern Africa enterprise, government and public utility account department CTO Dr Bello Moussa during the event.

Fixed network technologies have evolved from copper-based systems and asymmetric digital subscriber line technologies towards fibre-based broadband infrastructure, with the latest development being the Fixed 5G Advanced (F5G-A) standard released by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

“The vision of F5G-A is from fibre-to-the-home to fibre-to-everything and everywhere, to enable all industries and all applications,” Moussa said.

Industries such as transportation, automotive, utilities and healthcare will increasingly require high-speed and highly reliable connectivity infrastructure to support intelligent systems and AI-enabled applications.

Moussa noted that the rapid digitalisation of enterprises and industries was increasing pressure on network operators and infrastructure providers to expand bandwidth capacity and improve data transmission capabilities.

“Today, everyone is talking about cloud. Data is stored in the cloud and we need to access it. We are going to need higher bandwidth,” he said, adding that AI computing and high-performance computing systems would require large-scale data centre interconnectivity and ultralow-latency communications infrastructure.

“The future of AI will be in a combination of different servers. The more you can combine, the more powerful you will be,” Moussa declared.

Huawei is developing new transmission technologies to improve communication between interconnected servers to support more advanced AI computing environments.

Moussa highlighted the growing importance of environmentally sustainable infrastructure development, noting that future network infrastructure would need to reduce power consumption and carbon emissions while supporting increasing digital demand.

“As the network evolves, we are also facing some challenges to comply with the environment, so we have to build a green and [environment-friendly] network,” he said.

Meanwhile, Huawei South Africa information and communications technologies marketing and solution sales department director York Ning said optical infrastructure investment was becoming increasingly important as African economies accelerated digital transformation initiatives across multiple sectors.

“In this era, networks are still the foundation,” Ning said, adding that without high-quality optical networks, “even the most powerful AI cannot perform effectively”.

Within the optical networking sector, Huawei is working on four key areas in South Africa: high-speed backbone infrastructure, industrial communications networks, intelligent campus connectivity and optical sensing technologies.

AI-driven growth in data traffic is accelerating demand for 400G and 800G network technologies capable of supporting high-capacity and low-latency data transmission.

Huawei had partnered with Broadband Infraco on the deployment of what Ning described as South Africa’s intelligent optical backbone network deployed by the government sector: “We help South Africa build high-speed, stable and low-latency backbone networks, enabling smooth cross-region data transmission.”

Reliable digital infrastructure will become increasingly important for sectors such as power and transportation, which remain critical to economic development and industrial activity across the continent.

Huawei has been working with State-owned power utility Eskom since 2022 on the development of a 100G private power communications network aimed at supporting the utility’s digital transformation and operational reliability.

AI-enabled applications are increasingly being adopted across mining, warehousing, manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality environments, creating additional demand for advanced fibre-based enterprise connectivity infrastructure.

“This solution has already been deployed across the government, education, healthcare, hospitality and mining sectors in South Africa,” Ning said.

Moussa noted that newer optical technologies could also support infrastructure protection and automation applications, including pipeline monitoring, perimeter protection and intelligent industrial inspection systems.

“Today, fibre is no longer only a communication technology,” he said.

Huawei established partnerships with more than 1 400 local partners across areas including broadband, enterprise connectivity and data centres, while investing in local delivery capabilities and skills transfer initiatives.

Long-term collaboration among technology providers, infrastructure operators and local industries would remain important in supporting South Africa’s digital transformation and broader industrial development ambitions, with Ning affirming that Huawei was “rooted in South Africa, serving South Africa and growing with this country”.