Rain South Africa, a data-only network provider in South Africa has launched South Africa’s first 5G network in parts of Johannesburg and Tshwane, and it is offering prices that make fibre connections seem slow.
In a statement on Wednesday (18 September), Rain’s chief marketing officer Khaya Dlanga said that the service will first launch in parts of Johannesburg and Tshwane, with access being made available to select customers. Other interested users can apply for 5G through Rain’s website, and will be alerted once it is available in their region.
Here Is All You Need To Know
- Selected customers in Rain’s 5G coverage area have been invited to be the first to purchase ultra-fast 5G, unlimited internet from R1,000 per month, according to Khaya Dlanga.
- Rain will then deliver a state-of-the-art 5G router to a customer’s home. No installation is required, the router is simply plug-and-play and you will connected immediately.
- The speed and capacity of the 5G network, together with the latest Wifi 6 technology in the router, will enable rain users to stream high-definition video to multiple devices simultaneously.
- Khaya Dlanga said the company has achieved speeds of 700 Mbps during testing, but the typical client will see speeds around 200 Mbps.
- By comparison, a 40 Mbps fibre line at Telkom costs R1,199 a month, and you will pay R1,067 a month for a 50 Mbps fibre line via Afrihost.
- Dlanga said that the initial offering aims to provide fast, affordable and easy to install wireless connectivity to homes and businesses as an alternative to ADSL fibre and fixed-LTE.
- During the course of the next year 5G coverage area will be extended to Durban and Cape Town, Dlanga said.
- 5G is the latest iteration evolution of wireless data standards, and promises to be roughly 10 times faster than the current state-of-the-art 4G used by cellphone networks, while also being more reliable.
Read Also: How 5G Connectivity Will Boost The Output Volume of African Startups
South Africa And 5G Network
Vodacom and MTN have both said they could launch 5G locally in 2019, but have been restricted by a lack of access to the necessary radio frequency spectrum.
Vodacom already launched a 5G network in Lesotho in 2018.
In a policy discussion document released in August, South Africa’s national treasury said data prices could decline by as much as 25% if the appropriate spectrum is released in South Africa.
The release of spectrum, Treasury said, would reduce the cost of doing business in SA and contribute up to 0.6% in economic growth.
Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams in July issued a policy directive to Icasa to release additional spectrum.
If implemented, that would be the first time in 14 years that additional spectrum is released for use, after the state repeatedly missed its own deadlines to do so.
You can find out more about the service here.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world