5G set to hit SA via Rain in 2 weeks

● New kid on the block Rain, the data-only network operator, is expected to go live with SA’s first ultra-high speed 5G network in the next two weeks.

Rain announced in February that it had partnered with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to launch the first 5G commercial network in the country. The network has been rolled out in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the Sunday Times understands that Rain could start offering the service to business clients by mid-September.

Rain spokesperson Khaya Dlanga declined to comment on when they would go live, saying the launch would be “at some stage this year”. Huawei also declined to comment.

The provision of a 5G network using Huawei’s wireless infrastructure and 5G-enabled products will give Rain a major competitive edge over other local mobile network operators, who are still waiting for the government to allocate spectrum.

With connection speeds of up to 10GB/s, 5G will transform communication. Experts say it will speed up self-drive technologies and enable medical innovations such as remote surgery.

Rain has built a 5G network using the 3.6GHz spectrum it currently holds.

Independent ICT analyst Charley Lewis said Rain inherited the spectrum from its predecessor, Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), the holding company of iBurst and Broadlink, which was acquired in 2015 by former bankers Michael Jordaan and Paul Harris, who rebranded it.

“WBS were the initial contractors for the national lottery. They were given spectrum in order to build a national network for their terminals,” he said.

Lewis said this gives Rain a huge advantage over its competitors. However, 5G availability will for now be limited to densely populated areas because of the infrastructure investment required to roll it out. “In order to deploy 5G you need high antenna density, which becomes very expensive.”

He said the government should not neglect rural areas and poorer communities as it unlocks the spectrum needed to roll out 5G nationwide.

According to Lewis, once spectrum has been released and 5G is more readily available, equipment providers will be in a good position to exploit the need for new handsets, modems and other hardware that consumers will need to connect to the 5G network.

At the launch of the 5G commercial network at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, Rain group CEO Willem Roos said the high-speed network would contribute to SA’s economic growth initiatives.