Vodacom launches a commercial 5G FWA service in Lesotho

Vodacom launched a standards-based, commercial 5G service in Lesotho, the landlocked kingdom encircled by South Africa.

Vodacom's 5G service is delivering Fixed-Wireless Access broadband services to two enterprise customers in Lesotho. The service uses 3.5GHz spectrum.

Vodacom said it has deployed the same standards-based 5G technology in South Africa, where it reports speeds in excess of 700 Mbps and latencies of less than 10 milliseconds. The carrier expects to boost the downlink to 1 Gbps or more as new software versions and devices become available. Until such time as 3.5GHz spectrum becomes available to Vodacom South Africa, this network will not be available to its customers.

Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group Chief Executive Officer, says: “Vodacom prides itself on being a market leader and we are extremely pleased to be first to deliver 5G services to customers in Africa. What we’ve accomplished in Lesotho is an example of what can be achieved in Africa, should the requisite spectrum also be made available. Vodacom South Africa has been granted a temporary spectrum license of 100MHz in the 3.5GHz band to showcase the same standards-based 5G network capabilities in South Africa.

http://www.vodacom.co.ls/ls-personal/offers/voice-and-data-plans/data-plans/5g