Vodacom South Africa has unveiled plans to launch 5G connectivity this year and intends to leverage a December 2019 3.5GHz spectrum sharing agreement with Liquid Telecom. Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, commented: ‘Having been the first network to commercially launch 5G in Africa through Vodacom Lesotho, we expect to be able to launch 5G services in South Africa this year. This is possible thanks to a recent roaming agreement with Liquid Telecom, as 5G spectrum is largely unassigned in South Africa.’
The cellco says that it has also signed an improved roaming deal with domestic 4G player Rain. Mr Joosub noted: ‘Looking ahead, customers can expect to experience the benefit of our revised roaming deal with Rain, which will further expand our 4G capacity in an environment where delays in assigning available spectrum will constrain capacity for all networks.’