Call For Papers

Held under the theme "AI as the Last Mile: Building the Sustainable Digital Enterprise", SATNAC 2026 will take place at Club Med South Africa Beach & Safari, Tinley Manor, Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal 4430, from 11 - 14 October 2026. SATNAC invites original, high-quality submissions demonstrating measurable AI-driven value in telecommunications — from intelligent, sustainable networks to digital platforms extending connected intelligence to organisations and society.

What is the SATNAC Call for Papers

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 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.

Guidelines for Documentation

Full research papers: up to 10 pages using the IEEE two-column conference format, including figures, tables and references
Work-in-progress poster papers: 2–3 pages using the IEEE two-column conference format
All submissions must be written in English and prepared using the standard IEEE conference template in Word or LaTeX
Submissions must be original, unpublished and not under review elsewhere
The review version must be anonymised for double-blind peer review
Paper submission is via EasyChair

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Technical Programme Categories and Topics

SATNAC 2026 welcomes original research from Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Policy, and related disciplines. Submissions are considered under two technical tracks: Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Cross-disciplinary papers are strongly encouraged. Topics include, but are not limited to:

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

Network Standards and Regulation

Radio spectrum management, shared spectrum bands and Telecommunications policy
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

Submissions for SATNAC 2026 are now open

Important dates:

Call for papers: 1 July 2026
Paper submissions page open: 12 July 2026
Paper submission deadline: 14 August 2026
Work-in-progress deadline: 14 August 2026
Review notification: 18 September 2026
Camera-ready submission: 1 - 5 October 2026
Author registration: 18 - 30 September 2026
Conference dates: 11 - 14 October 2026

Paper Submission

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.

Review and Evaluation Criteria

Submitted papers will be evaluated based on:

Originality of contribution
Relevance to SATNAC
Technical and scientific merit
Reproducibility, Presentation and Clarity

Registration, Presentation and Publication

At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the conference by the author registration deadline and present the paper in the assigned technical session or poster session.
Full papers that are not presented will be excluded from the final proceedings.
General enquiries: satnac@telkom.co.za
Conference website: https://satnac.org.za/