{"id":278223,"date":"2018-10-18T11:54:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T09:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=278223"},"modified":"2018-10-18T11:55:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T09:55:52","slug":"mtn-talks-5g-future-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/278223\/mtn-talks-5g-future-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN talks 5G future in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTN South Africa CTIO Giovanni Chiarelli says that the operator is investing in 5G technology.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the 2018 MyBroadband Conference,\u00a0Chiarelli said MTN will invest in 5G at similar levels to the R40 billion it has pumped into its networks over the past five years.<\/p>\n

5G\u00a0networks \u2013 the next generation of mobile internet connectivity, will ensure faster speeds and more reliable connections for devices.<\/p>\n

Back in January, MTN,\u00a0in partnership with\u00a0Ericsson, conducted the first \u201c5G technology and applications trial in Africa\u201d at its head office in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

MTN achieved a throughput of over 20Gbps with less than 5ms latency in the 5G trial, which is \u201cthe highest achieved on a mobile network in Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

The operator said that the time that the tests will lead to the\u00a0commercial deployment of 5G technologies in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN and its partners continue identifying 5G use cases and applications for the digital transformation of industries,\u201d it said at the time.<\/p>\n

And in May<\/strong><\/a>, MTN partnered with Huawei to conduct the first 5G outdoor trial on the continent.<\/p>\n

Using Huawei\u2019s recently-launched commercial 5G terminal in conjunction with an existing tower, MTN reached download speeds of 530Mbps and upload speeds of 79Mbps, along with a latency of 7ms \u2013 measured in an online speed test.<\/p>\n

The network allocated 100MHz of its high-frequency 28GHz spectrum to conduct the test and used Huawei\u2019s 5G outdoor terminal to deliver the connection to a Huawei Wi-Fi router.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time we are demonstrating a complete end-to-end 5G network operating in a real-world environment,\u201d said MTN.<\/p>\n

MTN group president and CEO, Rob Shuter, did however, warn over getting carried away with the imminent arrival of 5G\u00a0networks. He said that the roll-out of 5G in the country will be much more case-based.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we speak about 3G coverage\u2026and 4G, we won\u2019t speak about it (5G) in the same way. This is a technology still looking for an application,\u201d Shuter said, highlighting the expense related to the equipment, and roll-out of such a service.<\/p>\n

4G technology<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Chiarelli, MTN will have 90% 4G population coverage before the end of 2018. He told delegates at the MyBroadband conference on Thursday that MTN is currently at 88% 4G coverage in the country.<\/p>\n

The high population coverage comes after\u00a0Chiarelli joined MTN just two years ago, where he was given the task to \u201cfix the network\u201d.<\/p>\n

After years of work and billions of rand invested into its network, he said MTN is well on track to challenge as the best network in South Africa.<\/p>\n

MTN is also aiming to have 3G deployed at every site it operates in the country before the end of year. MTN is currently close to 100% 3G population coverage, he added.<\/p>\n

In terms of \u201cnon-cellular\u201d solutions,\u00a0Chiarelli said MTN offers businesses and SMEs multiple connectivity options to keep them connected.<\/p>\n

Fibre is a top choice for companies, while smaller SMEs that cannot afford fibre can opt for\u00a0point-to-point microwave technology.<\/p>\n

At the moment, this microwave option covers 60% of businesses in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Spectrum<\/strong><\/p>\n

An issue which still plagues MTN, and all mobile operators in the country, is the lack of available spectrum.<\/p>\n

The only countries worse than South Africa where MTN operates are Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Yemen.<\/p>\n

Countries which far exceed SA in terms of spectrum availability include Syria, Ghana, Sudan, Zambia, Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: MTN weighs options including merger talks with Telkom \u2013 report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN South Africa CTIO Giovanni Chiarelli says that the operator is investing in 5G technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":278227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[13415,26,28],"class_list":["post-278223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-2018-mybroadband-conference","tag-headline","tag-mtn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278241,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278223\/revisions\/278241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}