The rollout follows a Cape Town trial that increased network energy savings from 2.8% to 13.5%, highlighting AI’s growing role in building more efficient and sustainable telecom infrastructure.
MTN South Africa and ZTE Corporation are expanding the deployment of an AI-powered energy management solution across the Western Cape, following successful commercial trials that demonstrated significant improvements in mobile network energy efficiency.
The companies are scaling ZTE’s AIR RAN EnergyTurbo, an AI-native closed-loop energy intelligence solution designed to optimise the energy consumption of mobile networks while maintaining a consistent customer experience.
During a commercial trial across selected sites in Cape Town, traditional baseline energy-saving features delivered an average energy saving of 2.8% per site. When EnergyTurbo’s AI capabilities were introduced, savings increased to 13.5%—an additional improvement of 10.7 percentage points.
Following the positive results, the solution was expanded across the Western Cape in the second quarter of 2026.
EnergyTurbo uses artificial intelligence to analyse network traffic patterns, energy policies and real-time service demand. Rather than relying solely on fixed energy-saving rules, the system predicts changes in network traffic and makes site-specific decisions through a closed-loop process.
This allows mobile base stations to reduce energy consumption during periods of low network demand while maintaining service performance as traffic increases.
For telecom operators, the technology could provide a way to balance the growing demand for connectivity with the need to control operational costs and improve environmental sustainability. As mobile networks expand and data consumption rises, energy efficiency is becoming an increasingly important consideration for operators seeking to manage infrastructure costs and reduce their environmental footprint.
The Western Cape rollout also represents a broader step in MTN South Africa’s efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into its network operations. The deployment was carried out in collaboration with regional teams and ZTE, demonstrating how AI technologies can move beyond experimentation and into live commercial telecommunications environments.
Luca Shen, CEO of ZTE South Africa, said the commercial validation demonstrated the practical value of AI in improving network efficiency and sustainability, while highlighting the companies’ efforts to introduce AI-native innovation into live networks.
Ernest Paul, Acting Chief Technology Officer of MTN South Africa, similarly emphasised the role of AI in enabling networks to make more intelligent, real-time decisions. By aligning energy consumption more closely with network traffic, the solution is designed to improve efficiency without compromising customer experience.
The expansion comes as telecom operators across Africa face the dual challenge of meeting rising demand for digital connectivity while managing the high energy requirements associated with network infrastructure. MTN and ZTE’s latest deployment illustrates how AI could increasingly become part of the solution—helping operators build networks that are not only smarter, but also more energy-efficient and sustainable.
The Western Cape deployment therefore offers a glimpse into a future where AI-driven network management becomes an important tool for reducing energy consumption while supporting the continued growth of Africa’s digital economy.
