Good news for Cell C 5G

Cell C is still in talks with its infrastructure partners Vodacom and MTN regarding a 5G launch, and it says large-scale activations could commence in the second quarter of 2025.

This comes after Cell C chief technology officer Schalk Visser told MyBroadband that the mobile operator was testing 5G with its partners in its lab in August 2024.

He indicated that testing was progressing well and said the operator was working on a VoLTE offering.

Cell C has now told MyBroadband that it is continuing to collaborate with MTN and Vodacom on 5G technology.

“Testing is nearly complete, and activation schedules are being finalised with our partners,” it said.

“Current indications suggest that large-scale activations will commence in the second quarter of 2025.”

5G technology offers several benefits over 4G, including significantly lower latency, higher speeds, and enhanced network capacity.

All of South Africa’s major mobile operators except Cell C currently offer the technology.

Cell C’s push into 5G is significant, considering the mobile operator reiterated its position that it was in no rush to adopt the technology just under a year ago.

“Cell C is currently in the process of modernising its core network to the latest architecture necessary for 5G deployment and progressing discussions with the network partner,” it said in late January 2024.

In its feedback at the time, Cell C said it had recently finalised its network migration. To do so, it had to establish agreements with its partners MTN and Vodacom.

MTN currently provides Cell C with a virtual radio access network for prepaid and mobile virtual network operator customers.

Cell C’s contract customers roam on Vodacom’s network.

Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes said the mobile operator had to rework its wholesale and roaming agreements with its partners to launch 5G, which he said had been completed.

However, he noted that having access to Vodacom’s and MTN’s networks wasn’t the only requirement for Cell C to adopt 5G — it also had to upgrade its core network to support the technology.

Mendes previously stated that the company was in no rush to launch 5G and claimed it “unlocks nothing” for customers.

He clarified that he wasn’t knocking 5G as a technology, highlighting that it benefits operators by supporting higher traffic volumes more efficiently.

“However, the benefits 5G unlocks for consumers is not obvious, not transparent,” added Mendes.

“2G to 3G unlocked data, 3G to 4G unlocked [streaming] video, 4G to 5G unlocks nothing.”

He explained that despite 5G offering significant benefits at an enterprise level, mobile operators like MTN and Vodacom struggle to monetise their 5G infrastructure at a consumer level.

However, he added that Cell C’s partners won’t charge more to let its customers roam on their 5G networks.

“It’s in their interests not to charge more,” Mendes said.

This is because operators want as much traffic on their 5G networks as possible because it’s more efficient.

Cell C launching VoLTE

Cell C also recently revealed its plans to launch Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services in South Africa, which it will do through its partnership with Germany-based ng-voice.

It highlighted the recent completion of its first VoLTE call on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It said the development of VoLTE will enable Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) services.

Through VoLTE technology, cellular subscribers can make and receive phone calls without the network first disconnecting them from the faster LTE data service and pushing them back to 3G.

“Cell C is launching its VoLTE services using ng-voice’s fully cloud-native IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and ePDG (AAA),” said Cell C.

Cell C’s collaboration with ng-voice will allow it to benefit from its flexibility and cloud technology, allowing voice systems to be updated continuously.

“Deploying ng-voice solutions in AWS eliminates the need for large hardware investments, making it the perfect solution for keeping voice production costs down,” said Cell C.

Visser described ng-voice’s IMS on AWS as the “perfect solution” for high-quality, reliable, and cost-effective voice communication services.

“This collaboration aligns with our commitment to harness the power of technology to meet our customers’ evolving needs,” he added.