Vodacom
has switched on what it calls “Africa’s first live 5G mobile network in
three cities” – Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town – with further
rollouts planned
to other parts of the country. Rain rolled out the first 5G network on
the continent last year, but it was limited to small areas of
Johannesburg and Tshwane..
This
Vodacom 5G network will support both mobile and fixed wireless services
and is currently available on twenty live 5G sites, 18 of which are in
Gauteng and
2 in Cape Town. Vodacom customers with 5G enabled devices, and within a
5G coverage area, are immediately able to access “one of the fastest and
most sophisticated network connections in Africa”.
“Vodacom
was recently assigned temporary spectrum by ICASA for the duration of
the national state of disaster, including 1 x 50 MHz in the 3.5 GHz
band, which
has been used to fast-track our 5G launch,” the company said in a
statement. “It also makes Vodacom the first operator to activate
temporary spectrum in South Africa. Vodacom and Liquid Telecom also
concluded managed network services and national roaming agreements
for a national 5G network in December 2019.”
As
a more efficient technology than its predecessors (such as 3G and 4G),
the deployment of 5G will help Vodacom manage the 40% increase in mobile
network traffic
and the 250% increase in fixed traffic experienced during the COVID-19
lockdown.
Shameel
Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, says: “Vodacom’s 5G launch in South Africa
comes at an important time as it will help us improve our 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.
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.”
Vodacom
announced in 2018 that it had begun modernising its network to prepare
for the deployment of standards based 5G technology in South Africa,
subject to the allocation of spectrum. 5G was designed to meet the
growing data and connectivity requirements of modern society, as the
amount of data traffic is expected to continue growing at exponential
rates. Vodacom
expects to expand its initial 5G rollout as more smartphones, Wi-Fi and
Fixed wireless access routers become available. The current 5G network
equipment deployed also operates in the same frequency bands which are
expected to be permanently assigned through
an auction later in the year. Existing 4G tariffs for mobile and fixed
will initially apply to Vodacom’s 5G service offering, with special 5G
tariffs to be announced in due course.
Vodacom
is currently offering the following 5G enabled devices, which customers
can use to experience the 5G network within the coverage area of the 20
live sites
(listed under Notes to Editors):
- Smartphones : LG V50 5G smartphone
- Fixed Wireless Access Routers: Huawei 5G CPE PRO
Customers can check if they are in a 5G coverage area on the Vodacom website (https://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/services/internet/5g
). They can then either sign up for a new 5G device deal or upgrade
online. The new 5G device will be delivered to the customer’s home
during the national lockdown period.
5G improves significantly on 4G in three key areas:
1. Faster speeds
In
comparison to 4G, peak speeds on 5G will increase significantly. 5G
will enable fibre-like speeds using the mobile network. This will be
useful
to download media content like 4K and even 8K movies in seconds. The
higher speeds from 5G will also enable new applications in future, like
augmented and Virtual Reality (VR), which will be helpful to realise new
applications such as e-education and also new
forms of entertainment like watching a sports game or music concert live
in VR from home.
2. Lower latency & better reliability
Latency
is the time it takes for devices to send and receive signals between
each other. Latency is very important for applications which require
near real time
responses, for example, between the user device and a cloud server used
in gaming. In comparison to 4G where latencies are typically between 20-30 milliseconds, 5G can support latencies as
low as 1 millisecond.
The
lower latency from 5G will also enable entirely new applications in
future such as remote robotic surgery, where decisions must be made by
the remote surgeon
and sent back to the surgery robot in near real time.
3. More capacity
5G networks can also provide much more capacity for data. 5G uses spectrum in a much more efficient manner than 4G technology and is able to fit more data into the same amount of spectrum.
5G devices can connect many more “things” to the network at the same time, enabling the realisation of new applications such as smart homes and smart cities. 5G is also more efficient than 4G in terms of the energy required per bit of data which is transmitted or received.
Vodacom was the first network operator to launch a 5G commercial service in Africa in Lesotho in 2018 and was also first to bring 2G, 3G and 4G services to South Africa. It says the widespread rollout of 5G will support the Government’s 4IR objectives in future, and will facilitate the creation of an entirely new technologically-enabled world.
To check whether you have Vodacom 5G in your area, visit: https://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/services/internet/5g
