The smart city solution and communications network deployed in Nairobi by Chinese ICT and telecommunications services provider Huawei has lifted Kenya's technical profile and grabbed the attention of industry analysts.

Huawei today issued a press release confirming that it has been awarded the 2015 Kenyan Frost & Sullivan Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award.

According to the release the deployment of a new communications network, linking over 1,800 surveillance cameras with 195 bureaus and 7,600 police officers in Nairobi, is of strategic importance in terms of national and economic security.

As an example Huawei refers to the National Police Service Commission of Kenya, which, the company says, "has a high-speed private broadband network that partly relies on the company's propriety wireless enhanced long-term evolution (eLTE) solution.

Joanita Roos, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst, said, "The wireless infrastructure links the National Police Service Commission's command centres with over 1,500 high-definition cameras in downtown Nairobi. Furthermore, it supports more than 200 cameras that are installed at city checkpoints and several wireless devices distributed to officers in the field.

"Thus, authorities can conduct panoramic video surveillance of Nairobi's urban centre, as well as maintain a highly-agile command and dispatch setup that runs on satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) and software-based geographic information system (GIS)."

Huawei also emphasises the value of the video cloud storage platform. "Through comprehensive security-video linkage, the platform meets multiple service needs, including real-time surveillance, video browsing and evidence collection," reads the statement.

The multinational tech firm has confirmed that its smart city solution has also been applied in DRC, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

Mozambique is also on the cards, but the company has only recently started to initiate the project and the scope has yet to be defined.

According to Huawei, in Ghana authorities wanted to focus on improving administrative efficiency and sought to acquire an effective emergency communications network that could provide voice, video, and data services simultaneously.

"Huawei provided a solution which was able to cover the country's centre area of major cities and traffic arteries by 253 sites, 12000 handsets, 1000 vehicle-mounted mobile terminals, 3 ECVs (Emergency Communication Vehicle)," the company added.

The handsets are equipped to transmit voice, data and real-time video.

In Kinshasa Huawei provided stakeholders with an eLTE ECV, which is able to transmit wireless data and real-time video to a central control centre.

The company has also entered into an agreement with Nigerian authorities for the development of emergency command centres across several states. The company intends to implement a unified access platform that will support multiple access modes, offer unified access numbers, and respond to emergencies faster.

In South Africa, Huawei introduced the safe city concept in May and the company says while currently there are no safe city solutions active in the country, there are a number of projects in the pipeline.

It is working with provincial and government representatives, including the Tshwane municipalities, the Western Cape Metropolitan and other agencies on various projects, all of which are dependent on requirements.