Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen several 5G conspiracy theorists condemning 5G network as related to the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, amidst all of this, Telecom giant MTN plans to fully integrate it’s 5G network at the end of June 2020, starting with South Africa.
MTN started testing its 5G network in Nigeria last year November in Abuja and Lagos shortly after it successfully ran a trial of the Network in South Africa, achieving 20 Gigabyte per second (Gbps) with less than five minutes latency.
MTN is now launching it 5G Network fully and South Africa will be the first country to enjoy the new network upgrade. The telco company already has started to promote its 5G value proposition in its latest Y’ello magazine, stating that MTN will make the “best network even better with 5G-enabled smartphones”.
This promotion forms part of the launch of the new 5G-enabled Huawei P40 or P40 Pro smartphones in South Africa.
According to the telco giant, the new 5G network will be available for both post-paid and prepaid customers with 5G-enabled devices and an LTE SIM card. However, 4G devices will not be able to use the new network, except when it’s connected to a 5G enabled wireless device.
When will MTN 5G Network be Available?
MTN 5G will be fully available in S.A this month, and expected to roll out to Nigeria at the second quarter of 2020.
Once the 5G network has rolled out, subscribers will have to switch to a 5G-enabled smartphone or get a 5G wireless router to use the network. The new 5G network is also expected to bring new data promotions to subscribers.