Telecommunications giant Vodacom said today, it had switched on live 5G mobile network in the economic hubs of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town.
The company said the network will support both mobile and fixed wireless services and is currently available on 20 live 5G sites, 18 of which are in Gauteng and two in Cape Town.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom CEO, said the company’s 5G launch in South Africa will help the company improve its network efficiency during the COVID-19 national state of disaster.
“During this difficult and unprecedented period, we are proud to offer world-class network technology to South Africa, and all of its associated benefits, as we provide an essential service to keep the country connected,” said Joosub.
“This is largely due to the allocation of temporary spectrum by ICASA which has already mitigated the network congestion we have experienced since the start of the lockdown period.”
Consumer-focused 5G services have been available in South Africa since September 2019 when Rain launched a fixed wireless offering.
Sunday World reported yesterday that Fitch Solutions, in a research note, said although Rain currently has a lead in retail-focused 5G services, other mobile players, mainly MTN and Vodacom will be the best placed to drive growth of consumer 5G services once they too launch offerings.
Ofentse Dazela, director of pricing research at information communication technology consulting company Africa Analysis, said the immediate role of 5G service will be to alleviate pressure on the fixed long-term evolution (LTE) infrastructure considering that demand for fixed wireless connectivity continues to soar.
“With the life span of copper technology coming to an end in the next 4 – 5 years, 5G service will be a suitable replacement particularly in areas where it does not make commercial sense to roll out fibre infrastructure,” said Dazela.
