South Africa’s rain rolls out first commercial 5G network in Africa

rain is a data-only network in South Africa and it can boast of being the first network to roll out a commercial 5G network in Africa.

The network first announced the launch at MWC Barcelona in February 2019. It has now rolled it out in in certain areas in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

According to Khaya Dlanga, Rain’s chief marketing officer, “Selected customers in rain’s 5G coverage area have been invited to be the first to purchase ultra-fast 5G, unlimited internet for only R1,000 ($68) per month.”

Dlanga says speeds of 700 Mbps in ideal conditions were recorded in testing. “However, in real world conditions we expect to see at least 200 Mbps for customers.”

rain has been able to build the 5G network using its 3.6GHz spectrum and the network is based on Huawei’s 5G end-to-end product solutions, including core network, bearer network, and base station systems.

rain CEO, Willem Roos, said, “rain is very pleased to launch the first 5G commercial network in South Africa. Thanks to 5G products and solutions provided by Huawei, our first invited 5G users can experience 5G ultra-high speed broadband service at home. rain will further co-operate with Huawei to accelerate the 5G commercial deployment.”

Yang Chaobin, the president of Huawei 5G product line, said: ” 5G is on the stage of large scale deployment in 2019, Huawei provides a Full-Scenarios 5G Simplified Solution to help operators rapidly deploy 5G commercial networks. Huawei is willing to continue to work with rain and all industry partners to bring the ultimate experience to users and jointly promote 5G commercialisation and business success.”

rain 5G will expand to Cape Town, Durban and other major metros in 2019/20. In future rain hopes to roll out up to 2,000 5G sites.