08 November 2018
Vodacom Group CTO Andries Delport presents the speeds achieved in the South African trial. The tests were conducted over a live 5G mobile network in Midrand and independently evaluated by test experts MyBroadband and Ookla.
On 25 August, Vodacom Group announced the continent’s first standards-based, commercial 5G service.
Its subsidiary in Lesotho is using 3.5GHz spectrum to initially deliver fixed wireless access broadband services to two enterprise customers.
While the operator has not named the companies involved, a spokesperson said: “[They are] two major customers in the mining and banking industries who were chosen due to their relative size and influence in the country.
We are working closely with them to deploy the service based on their requirements.” No further details about the number of users involved or what devices they are using were revealed.
Vodacom Lesotho said the immediate benefit of 5G technology for its subscribers includes the quicker deployment of broadband services with “fibre-like” speeds.
The company added that with early access to the technology, entrepreneurs and the government will be able to work with it to develop and incubate innovative applications to power digital transformation in the country.
Meanwhile, the group is claiming another 5G first, this time in South Africa with the deployment of the same standards-based technology as used in Lesotho.
This followed Vodacom being granted a temporary spectrum license of 100MHz in the 3.5GHz band to showcase 5G network capabilities in South Africa.
According to the operator, 3.5GHz spectrum is considered optimal for 5G deployments due to its suitability for throughput and capacity.
It added that the frequencies are not dependent on the digital migration in South Africa, and that they also have adequate indoor penetration characteristics to support a broad range of applications such as smart factories, augmented reality and autonomous vehicles.
Vodacom South Africa has deployed advanced 5G Massive MIMO to provide improved spectral efficiency and coverage, enabling increased network capacity.
It said its network is delivering speeds in excess of 700Mbps and latencies of less than 10 milliseconds.
The company said it will exceed 1Gbps as new software versions and devices become available.
Under an MoU signed late last year, the operator is using Nokia’s products to test 5G in South Africa (see News, Jan-Feb 2018).
But the 5G network will not be available to customers in South Africa until 3.5GHz spectrum becomes available in the country.
Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said: “What we’ve accomplished in Lesotho is an example of what can be achieved in Africa, should the requisite spectrum also be made available.
Vodacom will be able to make 5G services available to its customers in South Africa once requisite spectrum is assigned.
“Global technological advancements are evolving at a rapid pace and South Africa can’t afford to be left behind, particularly when we look at some of the potential use cases for 5G to support critical sectors of our society such as healthcare and education.”
A Vodacom spokesperson also said 5G rollouts in other group operations on the continent would depend on the different infrastructural requirements and the available spectrum in each country.
With this latest announcement, Vodacom has stolen a march on its rival MTN which also started trialling 5G at the beginning of 2018 following an agreement signed with Ericsson at AfricaCom last November.
