MTN South Africa demos 1.6Gbps in 100MHz TDD with 5ms latency

MTN South Africa, in partnership with Ericsson, demonstrated a 5G to a moving vehicle at the Gerotek testing facility in Pretoria.

The test used 100MHz of spectrum in the 28GHz band to achieve more than 1.6Gbps and less than 5ms latency on the connection.

The vehicle had a full obscured windscreen, requiring the driver to navigate the track using the live feed from a 4K video camera to his VR headset.

The solution demonstrated, consisted of 4 radio units, baseband equipment, a 5G user equipment (UE) prototype with an external antenna, a vehicle with the UE installed, a 4K video camera and a VR Headset, demonstrating the performance of a low-latency network.


“5G presents an opportunity for operators to improve their existing consumer businesses and address previously untapped value chains in the digitalization of industries. The collaboration between MTN South Africa and Ericsson has led to an exploration of a variety of use cases and applications for digital transformation of industries. These include the automotive, mining, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and utilities sectors. We are proud to be demonstrating this use case with MTN” says Rafiah Ibrahim, Head of Ericsson Middle East and Africa.”

“At MTN Business, we are very excited to have demonstrated our IoT (Internet of Things) capabilities, enabled by 5G technology, to our top tier customers today. Using pilots like this, we are not only assessing and preparing our network to roll out 5G in the future, but we are also future-proofing our infrastructure to enrich customer experience and take industries to the next level,” says Wanda Matandela, Chief Business Enterprise Officer, MTN SA.