This archive report was first published on 5 May 2020.
On Monday, Vodacom announced the launch of 5G technology in three cities across South Africa: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. The launch marks a significant milestone in the country's 5G journey, with the spectrum being Africa's first live 5G network.
According to a press release by Vodacom, the 5G roll-out has come after receiving a temporary spectrum by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), including 1 x 50 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band, used to fast-track the 5G launch.
With the deployment of 5G, Vodacom expects a 40% surge in mobile network traffic and a 250% increase in fixed traffic. The cost of 5G fixed internet will range from R899 (~KSh5,000) to R1799 (~KSh10,000) a month.
As part of its preparations for the deployment of 5G technology, Vodacom began modernizing its network in 2018, anticipating growth in data and connectivity requirements. The company also concluded a managed network services and national roaming agreement with Liquid Telecom in December 2019 for a national 5G network.
Existing 4G tariffs for mobile and fixed will initially apply to Vodacom's 5G service offering, with special 5G tariffs announced later. Vodacom is currently offering the following 5G-enabled devices: LG V50 5G smartphone and Huawei 5G CPE PRO fixed wireless access routers.
5G technology improves significantly on 4G in three key areas: faster speeds, lower latency, and better reliability, and more capacity.
