{"id":41578,"date":"2022-06-23T16:14:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T15:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/"},"modified":"2022-06-23T16:14:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T15:14:01","slug":"south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others","status":"publish","type":"gsma_theme_resources","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-28948\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"96\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-768x245.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo.png 1006w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture1-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29089 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture1-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture1-2.png 624w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture1-2-300x104.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Key Messages<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>4G continues to expand in Africa, and 5G is on the operators\u2019 radar. South Africa was the first country in the region to launch 5G, and has since been joined by a handful of countries: Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Togo.<\/li>\n<li>We examine 5G performance in South Africa in Q1 2022 vs. Q1 2021.\u00a0In Q1 2022, MTN had the fastest median 5G download speed in South Africa at 213.37 Mbps, ahead of Vodacom (132.11 Mbps).\u00a0MTN showed a strong improvement to its 5G Availability from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022, growing from 1.0% to 9.7%.<\/li>\n<li>Using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/speedtest-intelligence\">Speedtest Intelligence<\/a>\u00ae data, we analyzed mobile performance on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/articles\/how-ookla-ensures-accurate-reliable-data-2021#modern-chipsets\">modern chipsets<\/a>\u00a0during 2021. Southern Africa is the fastest region in Africa in terms of median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps.<\/li>\n<li>Johannesburg is the fastest city in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Narrowing the digital divide for wider societal benefits<\/h2>\n<p>According to GSMA Intelligence, there were almost one billion mobile connections across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in Q1 2022. Unfortunately for those users, it\u2019s no secret that mobile performance and coverage in Africa have been subpar. We examined the state of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/articles\/internet-speeds-north-africa-q1-2021\">North African market<\/a>\u00a0in June of 2021, but the time is long overdue to examine the state of networks specific to SSA.<\/p>\n<p>Affordable 4G smartphones and targeted financing for under-served demographics are key for bridging the digital divide, but that\u2019s not the only benefit: A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/documents1.worldbank.org\/curated\/en\/626011588705072099\/pdf\/The-Welfare-Effects-of-Mobile-Broadband-Internet-Evidence-from-Nigeria.pdf\">World Bank study<\/a>\u00a0found that 4G coverage can help cut poverty by up to 4.3%. Additionally, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/dms_pub\/itu-d\/opb\/pref\/D-PREF-EF.BDT_AFR-2019-PDF-E.pdf\">International Finance Corporation estimates<\/a>\u00a0a 10% boost to mobile broadband penetration in Africa could lift GDP per capita by 2.5%.<\/p>\n<h2>Southern Africa had the fastest median download speed across African regions<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture2-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29091 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture2-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture2-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture2-1-300x179.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/speedtest-intelligence\">Speedtest Intelligence<\/a>\u00ae data, we analyzed mobile performance on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/articles\/how-ookla-ensures-accurate-reliable-data-2021#modern-chipsets\">modern chipsets<\/a>\u00a0during 2021 (full year) across the African continent. Modern chipsets include all mobile tests, regardless of connection technology used, as long as they are taken on devices that are identified as being capable of achieving the fastest speeds available in a market. Ookla closely monitors the launch and widespread release of new device models built on chipsets capable of utilizing the latest mobile network technologies. We aggregated speeds across countries that fall within the five African regions as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unstats.un.org\/unsd\/methodology\/m49\/\">defined by the United Nations<\/a>. When looking at median download speeds in 2021,\u00a0Southern Africa ranked first, with a median download speed of 37.89 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 25.63 Mbps, Central Africa at 18.73 Mbps, Eastern Africa at 18.31 Mbps, and Western Africa at 17.00 Mbps.<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Africa had the fastest median upload speed at 9.23 Mbps, followed by Northern Africa at 8.99 Mbps, Central Africa at 8.62 Mbps, Southern Africa (8.20 Mbps), and Western Africa (7.91 Mbps).<\/p>\n<p>To support the growing demand for faster speeds there is a growing investment in both surface and undersea cables. For example, Google\u2019s new subsea cable, the\u00a0Equiano, landed in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.submarinenetworks.com\/en\/systems\/euro-africa\/equiano\/equiano-subsea-cable-lands-in-togo-first-stop-in-africa\">Togo in March 2022<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.submarinenetworks.com\/en\/systems\/euro-africa\/equiano\/equiano-subsea-cable-lands-in-lagos-nigeria\">Nigeria in April 2022<\/a>. The cable is set to become operational by the end of the year and is also expected to bring connectivity to areas such as Namibia, South Africa, and neighboring regions.<\/p>\n<p>We have chosen nine countries for our analysis as they were home to over half (56%) of the region\u2019s connections, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eastern Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda;<\/li>\n<li>Southern Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Botswana;<\/li>\n<li>Western Africa: C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Guinea, and Nigeria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>South Africa ahead of the pack for median download speed<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture3-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29093 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture3-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture3-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture3-1-300x160.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 18.0pt; background: white;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #181512;\">Analysis based on data from Speedtest Intelligence shows that mobile speeds varied widely across African countries during Q1 2022. When looking at mobile performance on modern chipsets across the nine countries of the SSA region, our results showed that\u00a0median download\u00a0speeds ranged between 11.11 Mbps (Tanzania) and\u00a048.76 Mbps (South Africa). Median upload speeds were between 6.45 Mbps (Tanzania) and\u00a012.58 Mbps (Botswana).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"background: white;\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #181512; font-weight: normal;\">4G Availability was in excess of 50%<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture4-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29095 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture4-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture4-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture4-1-300x170.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/articles\/how-ookla-ensures-accurate-reliable-data-2021\">4G Availability<\/a>\u00a0describes the percentage of users on all devices who spend the majority of their time connected to 4G technology both roaming and on-network. Across the nine countries we looked at, 4G Availability exceeded 50% across the board.\u00a0South Africa had the highest 4G Availability at 86.2%, followed by C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire (82.1%), Kenya (81.5%), Democratic Republic of Congo (78.9%), Nigeria (77.9%), Uganda (75.9%), Tanzania (72.1%), and Botswana (69.4%). Guinea ranked last at 52.7%, largely because only Orange Guinea offers 4G services, utilizing 1800 MHz spectrum for which it was granted a license in March 2019. According to Ookla\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/map-elements\">Map Elements<\/a>\u00ae, Orange\u2019s LTE network covers 14% of the Guinean population. However, that should change soon with MTN being awarded a 4G operating license in February 2022.<\/p>\n<h3>Johannesburg has the fastest median download speed among select African cities<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture5-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29097 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture5-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture5-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture5-1-300x179.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speeds in Capital Cities in Africa (modern chipsets, all providers combined)<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to speeds in select African capital cities,\u00a0Johannesburg was fastest with a median download speed of 65.54 Mbps \u2014 nearly 35% faster than that of the next-fastest city, Cape Town at 48.27 Mbps.<\/p>\n<p>Gaborone stood out for posting the third-fastest median download speed on the list at 42.29 Mbps. Meanwhile, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, and Abuja ranked closely together in terms of median download and upload speeds, with median download speeds ranging between 27.77 Mbps and 33.38 Mbps, with upload speeds ranging between 8.48 Mbps and 11.92 Mbps.<\/p>\n<h2>The early days of 5G in Africa show green fields for operators<\/h2>\n<p>As 4G continues to expand in Africa, 5G is on operators\u2019 radar. In sub-Saharan Africa, the 5G journey has already begun, but it is still early days for 5G deployment and commercialization.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture6-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29099 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture6-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture6-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture6-1-300x179.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>South Africa was the first country in the region to launch 5G, and has since been joined by a handful of countries: Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Togo. According to GSA, there were nine commercial 5G networks in seven markets across the region by the end of May 2022. In these markets, 5G coverage remains limited to major cities. Furthermore, just over two dozen operators are either planning, or testing 5G technology or are already in the deployment stage. Regulators across the regions have also started to make spectrum available for 5G.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BOTSWANA:\u00a0<\/strong>In February 2022, Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) offered existing and new operators an opportunity to apply for spectrum in 5G frequency bands, covering low and mid band spectrum. This will allow operators to expand their existing 4G networks and roll out 5G. Operators are allowed to re-farm their existing spectrum to augment new spectrum to enable them to roll out 5G. Shortly after, during the same month, Mascom launched four 5G sites in the capital Gaborone as part of plans to roll out 111 sites across Botswana by the end of 2022.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KENYA:\u00a0<\/strong>The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA)\u00a0developed a roadmap to facilitate 5G deployment. CA is preparing to reallocate spectrum in the 3500 MHz band, which was previously assigned for FWA networks in Kenya but will be refarmed for 5G by June 30, 2022. In May 2022, Safaricom was allocated 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2600 MHz band, which was previously used by the security agencies but has been released following a change in the technology that they use.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NIGERIA:<\/strong>\u00a0In December 2021, MTN and Mafab Communication won 100 MHz TDD each in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band. In line with the terms and conditions of the concessions, the telcos are expected to commence the rollout of their 5G networks from August 24, 2022. While Airtel Africa pulled out of Nigeria\u2019s 5G auction, its CEO Segun Ogunsanya stated they have sufficient spectrum in other bands to launch 5G.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SOUTH AFRICA:<\/strong>\u00a0In March 2022, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) completed a delayed 5G\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.icasa.org.za\/news\/2022\/icasa-concludes-successful-spectrum-auction-and-collects-more-than-r14-4-billion-proceeds\">auction<\/a>, selling spectrum across 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 2.6 GHz, and 3.5 GHz bands. Rain and Vodacom got new low-band frequency assets in the 700 MHz band while Telkom and MTN gained spectrum in 800 MHz. All bidders received spectrum in mid-bands, which is considered the sweet spot for 5G in terms of speed and availability.<\/p>\n<h3>MTN leads on 5G in South Africa<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the fact that the 5G spectrum auction was completed in March 2022, Vodacom and MTN launched 5G services beforehand using emergency, temporary spectrum allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The regulator released spectrum in April 2020 to help operators alleviate some of the challenges they faced in responding to the high demand for data during COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2020, Vodacom launched the first 5G network across Africa, in partnership with Nokia in the 3.5 GHz band. At the time of launch, the network was available in three cities \u2014 Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town \u2014 with a total of 190 5G sites. MTN followed in June 2020, using spectrum across 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, and 3500 MHz bands. In its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mtn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/MTN-Group-FY-21-Integrated-Annual-Report.pdf\">latest report<\/a>, MTN reported that in 2021, it had over 1,000 5G sites across several spectrum bands with plans to significantly scale up with 3.5GHz spectrum.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture7-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29101 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture7-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture7-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture7-1-300x172.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using Speedtest intelligence data, we compared operators\u2019 5G performance in Q1 2022 against data from Q1 2021.\u00a0In Q1 2022, MTN\u2019s median 5G download speed reached 213.37 Mbps \u2014 decreasing by a third when compared to Q1 2021 (320.10 Mbps).\u00a0 Median upload speed suffered a nearly 40% decrease, going from 46.05 Mbps to 27.32 Mbps. When we\u00a0examined the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ookla.com\/articles\/state-of-worldwide-5g-2021\">State of 5G Worldwide in 2021<\/a>, we concluded that it\u2019s common to see new mobile access technologies slow down as adoption scales, particularly early on in the tech cycle and as more users are logging on to existing 5G networks. As such, the downward tendency in MTN\u2019s performance is not surprising at all.\u00a0Vodacom, on the contrary, almost doubled its median 5G download speed from 69.93 Mbps to 132.11Mbps.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture8-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-29103 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture8-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture8-1.png 468w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture8-1-300x131.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>5G Availability, which describes the percent of users on 5G-capable devices that spend the majority of their time on 5G, continues its upward trajectory across South Africa, from just 0.9% in Q1 2021 to 5.6% in Q1 2022.\u00a0MTN had shown a stronger improvement to its 5G Availability in the Q1 2021 to Q1 2022 period than its rival, growing from 1.0% to 9.7%.<\/p>\n<p>Since the award of temporary spectrum in 2020, MTN has intensified its investment to increase network coverage, improve speeds, and enhance the overall customer experience. The operator has also invested in an expansion drive into rural and peri-urban areas and a major 5G rollout, reaching 15% of South Africa\u2019s population at the end of 2021. MTN is also planning to extend its 5G coverage to 25% of the population by the end of 2022, and 60% by 2025. As part of MTN\u2019s \u201cModernization of Network South Africa\u201d (MONZA) project, MTN has been allocating a budget to extend network reach into rural communities, support 5G expansion, and restore vandalized infrastructure: ZAR 624 million ($38.7m) for Eastern Cape, ZAR 749 million ($46.5m) for Western Cape, ZAR 820 million ($50.9m) in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.<\/p>\n<p>Vodacom\u2019s 5G Availability had grown from 1.4% in Q1 2021 to 6.4% in Q1 2022. Vodacom reported in its FY 2022 results (for year ended March 2022) that in South Africa, capital expenditure was directed at improving capacity and resilience of the network and increasing 5G roll-out. As of March 2022, the operator\u2019s 4G network covered 97.9% of the population, and it had also extended 5G sites to 624.<\/p>\n<p>This investment drive is paying off. According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.icasa.org.za\/uploads\/files\/State-of-ICT-Sector-Report-March-2022.pdf\">ICASA\u2019s report<\/a>, 5G population coverage reached 7.5% in 2021, an increase from a mere 0.7% in 2020. However, there is a disparity between urban and rural population coverage. 5G was present across all of the urban provinces, with Kwazulu-Natal in the lead with 20% 5G population penetration, while only three regions (Free State, Gauteng, and Western Cape) reported 1-2% population coverage in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Having invested into spectrum and network roll-out, the operators look for ways to monetize 5G. For example, MTN has partnered with Australia\u2019s Emerge Gaming to allow people to play cloud games on their Huawei P40 Pro phone using MTN\u2019s 5G network. This is all in order to attract more consumers, especially video games\u2019 enthusiasts. MTN also partnered with Huawei South Africa, Miniandante Mining, and Minetec Smart Mining to transform old mining processes using 5G.<\/p>\n<h2>African nations still face many hurdles to modernizing networks<\/h2>\n<p>It is still early days for 5G across most of Africa. South Africa is leading the region having launched commercial networks in 2020. One of the key challenges across Africa in terms of network rollouts regardless of technology relate to the cost of mobile base stations, the backhaul technology that connects mobile sites to the core network, and energy supply.<\/p>\n<p>Recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/documents.worldbank.org\/en\/publication\/documents-reports\/documentdetail\/099720003142231831\/p165747-67f7382c-67ad-4805-ab5b-7e59f78c7642\">World Bank report<\/a>\u00a0points to the three main areas where infrastructure costs can be prohibitive in rural settings, such as the mobile base station, the backhaul technology that connects mobile sites to the core network, and energy supply. To alleviate the challenges operators are taking steps and looking to innovative approaches to improve the situation. For example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/press-releases\/2022-05-10\/nuran-selected-for-an-additional-500-sites-and-provides-corporate-update\">Orange DRC partnered with NuRAN<\/a>\u00a0to construct and operate 2,000 solar-powered mobile towers, with a particular focus on rural communities, which will cover at least 10 million people in rural areas. These lower-cost \u201clight towers,\u201d are better suited to covering remote locations with small populations and come with significant cost savings. One of the reasons for lower costs is being powered by renewable energy solutions, particularly solar, rather than more expensive diesel generators.<\/p>\n<p>Device affordability is another issue. There are currently a few initiatives across the continent aimed at expanding connectivity to areas where it\u2019s lacking. For instance, Google partnered with Safaricom in Kenya for a program that allows customers to pay for 4G-enabled phones in installments, while MTN Uganda reinforced a partnership with M-Kopa in March 2022 to introduce 4G smartphones on installment payment terms. MTN also inked a partnership with M-Kopa in 2021 that facilitated the sale of more than 70,000 smartphones, financing over 2 million customers across Africa. Orange in Cote d\u2019Ivoire launched a similar initiative in partnership with Yabx and Cofina. Yabx, a Dutch firm that offers credit across multiple countries in Africa, will provide the technology and manage the complete customer journey that will enable Cofina, an Ivorian financial institution that provides SME financing, to launch plans for Orange subscribers. Bringing 5G devices into the African markets will be even more challenging.<\/p>\n<p>Operators continue to innovate and we are keeping a close eye on how the network deployments are progressing and the network performance end users experience. If you are interested in benchmarking your performance or if you\u2019d like to learn more about internet speeds and performance in other markets around the world\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.speedtest.net\/global-index\">visit the Speedtest Global Index<\/a>\u2122.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sylwia Kechiche | Ookla LLC | June 21, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"image":null,"json":{"gsma_resources_type":"Press Release","gsma_resources_thumb":"[]","gsma_resources_file":"[]","gsma_resources_multi":null,"gsma_resources_wgr":null,"gsma_resources_video":null,"gsma_resources_image":"[]","gsma_resources_url":null,"gsma_resources_date":"23\/06\/2022","gsma_resources_button":"Download"}},"tags":[],"resource_categories":[4871],"algolia_discover_type":[9668],"class_list":["post-41578","gsma_theme_resources","type-gsma_theme_resources","status-publish","hentry","resource_categories-member-press-release","algolia_discover_type-resource"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v24.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others - Membership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sylwia Kechiche | Ookla LLC | June 21, 2022\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Membership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gsma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others - Membership","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others","og_description":"Sylwia Kechiche | Ookla LLC | June 21, 2022","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/","og_site_name":"Membership","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@gsma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/","name":"South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others - Membership","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png","datePublished":"2022-06-23T15:14:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"zh-CN-","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"zh-CN-","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Logo-300x96.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/south-africa-spearheads-5g-in-africa-but-the-road-is-long-and-windy-for-others\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"South Africa Spearheads 5G in Africa, but the Road is Long and Windy for Others"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/","name":"GSMA Membership","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"zh-CN-"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/#organization","name":"GSMA","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"zh-CN-","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GSMA-Logo-Red-RGB.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GSMA-Logo-Red-RGB.png","width":8001,"height":1255,"caption":"GSMA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/gsma"]}]}},"cats":[{"term_id":9670,"name":"Member Blog and Articles","slug":"blog","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9670,"taxonomy":"resource_categories","description":"GSMAs' Member Blog and Articles","parent":0,"count":69,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5257,"name":"Member Case Study","slug":"case-study","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5257,"taxonomy":"resource_categories","description":"GSMA Members\u2019 Case Studies","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9623,"name":"Member Press Release","slug":"member-press-release-cn","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9623,"taxonomy":"resource_categories","description":"","parent":0,"count":107,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":4872,"name":"Resources and Documentation","slug":"resource-document","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":4872,"taxonomy":"resource_categories","description":"GSMA Members\u2019 White Paper","parent":0,"count":41,"filter":"raw"}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gsma_theme_resources\/41578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gsma_theme_resources"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/gsma_theme_resources"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gsma_theme_resources\/41578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41578"},{"taxonomy":"resource_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_categories?post=41578"},{"taxonomy":"algolia_discover_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/algolia_discover_type?post=41578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}