SATNAC 2026: Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference Club Med South Africa Beach & Safari Ballito, KZN, South Africa, October 11-14, 2026

The Southern Africa Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC) is an annual event hosted by Telkom. It provides a platform for researchers, postgraduate students, academics, industry practitioners, telecommunications operators, regulators, vendors, technology partners and innovators to present original work, exchange ideas, interact with peers and engage with local and international experts in the telecommunications and ICT sector.

SATNAC 2026 invites original, high-quality submissions under the theme: AI as the Last Mile: Building the Sustainable Digital Enterprise. The conference focuses on contributions that demonstrate measurable AI-driven value in telecommunications, from intelligent, sustainable and interoperable networks to digital platforms that extend connected intelligence to organisations and society. The theme further reflects the need for telecommunications operators and technology partners to rethink traditional business models, embrace innovation at scale, and translate AI and digital infrastructure into operational excellence, growth and long-term value creation.

The conference programme includes keynote addresses by dignitaries from the public and private sectors, technical paper sessions, work-in-progress poster presentations, panel discussions, industry sessions, Telkom Centre of Excellence demonstrations and networking opportunities.

Submission Guidelines

• All submissions must be written in English and prepared using the standard IEEE two-column, 10pt font conference template in Word or LaTeX.
• Full papers should not exceed the page limit of 10 pages including references.
• Work-in-progress short papers should be 2-3 pages.
• Submissions must be original, unpublished and not under review elsewhere.
• The review version must be anonymised for double-blind peer review. Author names and affiliations must be removed from the review version of the manuscript.
• Papers involving human participants, sensitive data, personal information, security-sensitive systems or regulated environments must include appropriate ethics, privacy and approval statements in the final camera-ready version where applicable.
• Final accepted papers must be revised in response to reviewer comments and must satisfy all formatting, plagiarism screening, copyright and publication requirements.

List of Topics

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Track

Wireless Communications and Next-Generation Technologies:

• Mobile technologies: 5G, 5G-Advanced, 6G and beyond, New Radio, advanced radio access networks, Open RAN and Cloud RAN
• Low Power Wide Area Networking, Narrowband IoT, massive IoT, sensor networks and industrial IoT
• Next Generation Wi-Fi, Next Generation MIMO and Massive MIMO, Cognitive Radio, Spectrum sensing and radio resource management
• Non-terrestrial networks, satellite communications, UAV-enabled networks and integrated terrestrial/non-terrestrial connectivity
• Applied AI, machine learning and reinforcement learning for network optimisation, planning and automation
• Network digital twins, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and fault localisation

Core Network Technologies and Architecture

• Core IP networks, EPC, 5G core, cloud-native networks, network slicing and multi-tenancy
• Software-defined networking, network function virtualisation, service orchestration and microservice-based network systems
• Fronthaul and backhaul networking
• Routing and Congestion management

Sustainability, Inclusion and Social Impact:

• Community Networks, Rural Connectivity, Affordable Connectivity, Digital Inclusion, Accessible Technologies
• Network Technologies for Smart Grid, Alternative Energy and Climate Change.
• Empirical Case studies on technology for social impact and community development, particularly in underserved regions

Network Standards and Regulatory:

• Radio spectrum management, shared spectrum bands and Telecommunications policies
• Standards and regulatory developments involving ITU, ETSI, IEEE, 3GPP and related bodies
• Digital transformation strategy, market evolution and operator business models

Computer Science Track

Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Applications:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP), Speech Recognition, African Languages, Data Generation and Curation
• Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision, Extended Reality, Metaverse, Robotics perception, Virtual Collaboration
• Smart cities, smart agriculture, e-health, IoT applications, Advanced Sensing, Soft-sensing, digital platforms and industry applications
• Data analytics, data governance, data privacy and responsible data use

Data Centres, Cloud, Edge and Programmable Infrastructure:

• High-Performance Computing, Cloud computing, edge computing, fog computing,
• Green data centres, energy efficiency, workload placement and renewable energy integration

Security, Privacy and Trust:

• Network Security, Secure Network Architectures, Cybersecurity challenges
• Information Privacy, Cryptography, Blockchain
• Intersection of AI and cybersecurity, e.g., AI-driven threat detection and response mechanisms, Trustworthy AI

Review and Evaluation Criteria

• Originality of contribution
• Relevance to the SATNAC
• Technical and scientific merit
• Reproducibility, Presentation and clarity
 

Important Dates

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to General enquiries: satnac@telkom.co.za