28 February 2025

Cell C is planning to launch 5G services in South Africa in the next two months as its financial turnaround plan gains traction.

CEO Jorge Mendes told local media that the company is at an advanced stage of preparing to launch 5G to its subscribers – and it plans to use the technology to deliver both 5G on smartphones and to offer a range of new, 5G-based fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband solutions with large data bundles that compete with fibre.

Cell C’s 5G launch plans come after intense negotiations with network partners MTN and Vodacom, which operate the last-mile infrastructure that connects consumers to the company’s core network. Mendes said those discussions have progressed well and that Cell C is confident it will be able to launch a 5G offering that makes commercial sense.

Cell C’s decision several years ago to shut down its own radio access network in favour of outsourcing that function to Vodacom and MTN has worked well. Not only has it significantly reduced the company’s capital expenditure, but it has also greatly improved Cell C’s network quality.

Cell C has spent the past 18 months deploying a Mocn – multioperator core network – roaming system, which has allowed it to create a virtual representation of its network on top of either MTN or Vodacom’s infrastructure. This has given Cell C significantly greater control over where it directs user traffic, allowing it to lower costs and be more efficient. It is also aggressively moving voice calls off old circuit-switched technology and onto an internet protocol-based technology – VoLTE - that routes calls over 4G/LTE.