Telkom grows in 5G adoption, reaching over 8m South Africans

Telkom is getting growth in 5G adoption among local customers, despite the local industry being marred by several barriers to implementation.

Launching the fifth-generation technology in partnership with Huawei back in October, the telecoms group became the latest telco to step into SA’s increasingly competitive 5G market. During that time, the company revealed that it had been building its 5G network capacity, two years prior, in preparation for the national rollout. The primary focus is providing superfast 5G fixed wireless access solutions and 5G mobile offerings.

Telkom Group CEO, Serame Taukobong said the operator continues to invest in expanding its 5G network, despite the challenges it has encountered in this space. It currently has over 340 on-air 5G sites, which cover approximately a population of 8.5 million people.

“We continue to improve our 5G propositions; however, the high cost of 5G CPEs (routers) remains a barrier for customers and similarly, mobile phones that are 5G-enabled are high-end smartphones and most customers cannot afford them,” notes Taukobong.

Experts have mentioned that 5G mobile devices are out of reach for most South Africans, due to their high prices. Even with broader 5G coverage, the devices would still initially only serve the high-end market. Research analyst at IDC, Arnold Ponela said at the time that it may take up to two years after SA’s spectrum allocation process for SA to have nationwide 5G coverage.

According to Paul Colmer, exco member of the Wireless Access Providers Association, 5G network rollouts are gathering pace across SA; however, the county’s power crisis remains a key barrier.

SA’s inconsistent power supply, he adds, will result in “exponentially higher” investments required to deploy 5G networks nationwide.