Vodacom has deployed Africa’s first live 5G network in South Africa. The newly launched network band is now available for customers with 5G flagship smartphones in the region making Vodacom the first operator in Africa to fully launch 5G commercial services.
In Uganda, MTN Uganda showcased its a 5G trial after Nigeria’s active demo that paved a path for Safaricom to choose Huawei as its equipment provider to build its 5G network in Kenya. But none of the telcos ever plotted when they will fully launch 5G services.
With Vodacom’s new 5G network users are able to connect with speeds of 150Mbps – 500Mbps with a high peak of 1Gbps. The network currently supports both mobile and fixed wireless access.
According to Vodacom, the 5G achievement comes after the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) gave the telco a 3.5Ghz band spectrum used to fast track the 5G network deployment.
5G is currently available in SouthAfrica’s cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town with further rollouts planned for other parts of the country. The network is further available on 20 live 5G sites with 18 available in Gauteng and 2 in Capetown.
For data plans, Vodacom inked that existing 4G bundles for mobile and fixed wireless can initially apply to the new 5G offering as the telco plans for new tariffs tailored for 5G network connectivity.
At the moment, Vodacom is affordably offering Huawei’s 5G CPE Pro and Nokia first mile 5G fixed wireless routers to customers who wish to connect to 5G using their regular 3G/4G Smartphones in case of non-5G compatibility.