Rain to showcase 5G technology in November 2018

South Africa’s Rain is planning to deploy a 5G network in the country, according to its chairman Paul Harris. The fixed-wireless network – to be rolled out in partnership with Huawei and Nokia – will leverage its existing spectrum allocation in the 3.6GHz band to provide ‘ultra-broadband services’ to homes and small and medium enterprises. Harris said: ‘The network will provide fibre-like speeds without the installation complexities, time delays or the cost of laying fibre in underserviced areas. The technology has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of ultra-broadband Internet access for a broad section of South Africans.’ The company said it will demonstrate its 5G network at the AfricaCom ICT conference in Cape Town from 12 November 2018.