It’s hard to explain what value Edition 28 of Telkom’s flagship Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (Satnac) added to the African tech ecosystem, but there were some great conversations. The key to wearing a Batman mask (think the full plastic one that would finish off the costume) to a black-tie masquerade ball is confidence. You’re going to get comments, and there is always the threat of being denied access to the event.
It’s a gamble, much like the one Telkom took in 1997 to address the skills shortage in the telecoms industry. Twenty-eight years later, and we’re experiencing a new seismic shift (and approaching a new bubble pop). Only, this time, the conversations before dinner focus on the disturbingly low repeatability some university researchers are experiencing in their application development work with the current crop of large language models (LLMs).
Nokia executives provided a free consultation when they inquired about a local group of researchers focused on fibre sensing. This cutting-edge technology allows underground fibre cables to detect vibrations from approaching excavators. While the knowledge exchange was happening over drinks, the main plenary of the formal programme was dominated by vibes.
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And the vibe at the Arabella Hotel in Keainmond, Western Cape, was one of aggressive optimism, bordering on the evangelical. If you listened only to the headline acts, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the digital divide had been filled with fibre-optic cement and smoothed over. “For the first time in modern history, Africa is standing at the starting point in the starting line of technological evolution at the same moment as the rest of the world,” announced Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong.
It’s a compelling narrative, especially when delivered to a room full of industry captains. “In the age of intelligent systems, Africa is not behind. We are alongside artificial intelligence.” Look, it would make a great LinkedIn carousel.
Taukobong doubled down on the human element, insisting that “Africa’s greatest resource is not mineral or mental. It is our imagination, our creativity, our resilience and our people.” But there was a tension in the room, a static electricity that wasn’t just coming from the server racks. It was the tension between the Africa Rising narrative and the reality of a continent that still struggles to keep the lights on, let alone power a localised LLM training cluster.
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