MTN South Africa has successfully completed what it believes to be Africa’s first 5G-Advanced Upper 6GHz (U6GHz) network trial, achieving peak download speeds of 10.35 Gbps.
Conducted at MTN’s headquarters in Randburg under a temporary ICASA radio licence, the trial demonstrates the potential of next-generation wireless technologies to support growing connectivity demand, enhance customer experiences and help prepare South Africa for an increasingly digital future.
The trial combined a dedicated 5G Standalone core network, ultra-wideband active antennas and advanced beamforming technologies, utilising an ultra-wide 400 MHz bandwidth. The achievement highlights the significant capacity, speed and efficiency that U6GHz spectrum could unlock in the future.
As demand for data-intensive services continues to grow, technologies such as U6GHz have the potential to play an important role in expanding network capacity, supporting digital inclusion and enabling broader participation in the digital economy.
What U6GHz means for South Africans
The potential impact of U6GHz can be understood through three practical benefits:
- Reliable home broadband connectivity – In many South African communities, traditional fibre infrastructure can be challenging or costly to deploy. U6GHz has the potential to enhance Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services, enabling households to access high-speed, fibre-like broadband connectivity over the air. This can support remote work, online learning and digital entertainment.
- Greater capacity in high-demand areas – Busy environments such as transport hubs, shopping centres, stadiums and university campuses often place significant demands on network resources. Additional spectrum in the U6GHz band can help accommodate increasing data traffic, delivering a more consistent connectivity experience for large numbers of users simultaneously.
- Supporting digital inclusion – By combining broad coverage with significant data capacity, U6GHz spectrum has the potential to help meet growing connectivity needs across urban centres and expanding suburban communities. This could contribute to more affordable and accessible digital services as South Africa’s digital economy continues to evolve.
“This milestone demonstrates the value of continued innovation as we prepare for South Africa’s future connectivity needs. As demand for data and digital services continues to grow, it is important that we explore technologies that can expand network capacity, enhance customer experiences and support the country’s digital transformation ambitions. Trials such as this help us better understand how next-generation spectrum bands could contribute to a more connected and digitally inclusive future,” says Ferdi Moolman, CEO of MTN South Africa.
Alex Xing, vice-president of Huawei’s MTN Group key account department, comments: “The U6GHz frequency band, as a core spectrum resource for 5G-A and 6G, helps underpin the leapfrog development of Africa’s digital economy. Huawei has always been committed to helping MTN drive technological innovation, and we will fully support MTN to complete commercial network verification going forward.”