Vodacom showcases 5G capabilities in official launch
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report.
Sashnee Moodley:
Vodacom has officially launched its standards-based, commercial fifth-generation, or 5G, service in Lesotho, delivering early access technology initially to two enterprise customers, with ambitions of eventually launching the service commercially in South Africa. Natasha Odendaal tells us more.
Natasha Odendaal:
Vodacom showcased the potential of 5G after launching a commercial service in Lesotho earlier this month.
Using 3.5 GHz spectrum, the company will initially provide fixed-wireless access broadband services to two enterprise customers in Lesotho.
Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub:
Natasha Odendaal:
However, the same service cannot be launched commercially in South Africa until the required spectrum is allocated.
Vodacom South Africa has only been granted a temporary spectrum licence of 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band to showcase the 5G network capabilities.
Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub:
Natasha Odendaal:
The group’s service in South Africa delivers speeds in excess of 700 Mb/s, which will surpass 1 Gb/s as new software versions and devices become available, and latencies of less than 10 milliseconds.
Vodacom head of innovation Jannie van Zyl explains some of the demonstrations and applications for 5G.
Vodacom head of innovation Jannie van Zyl:
Sashnee Moodley:
That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.