Rain partners Huawei, launches first commercial 5G network in South Africa

South Africa’s mobile data-only network operator, Rain, in partnership with Huawei, has launched the first commercial 5G network in the country. The collaboration with Huawei, the leading global ICT solutions provider, has made South Africa one of the first countries globally to launch 5G network. Rain’s CEO, Willem Roos, disclosed this at the 2019 Mobile […]

South Africa’s mobile data-only network operator, Rain, in partnership with Huawei, has launched the first commercial 5G network in the country.

The collaboration with Huawei, the leading global ICT solutions provider, has made South Africa one of the first countries globally to launch 5G network.

Rain’s CEO, Willem Roos, disclosed this at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC19) which just ended in Barcelona, Spain.

“The network will provide fibre-like speeds without the installation complexities, time delays and cost of laying fibre in under-serviced areas,” says Roos.

With Huawei’s end-to-end 5G solutions, Rain has been able to build the 5G network using its 3.6GHz spectrum. In the first phase of roll out, Rain has deployed a number of 5G sites in key areas in Johannesburg.

Apart from deploying new base stations, Huawei’s solutions enable Rain to fully leverage its existing LTE network and allocated spectrum for 5G deployment.

This approach of sharing facilities and leveraging existing infrastructure will enable Rain to roll out the 5G network in a quick and cost-effective manner.