Fake 5G router struggle in South Africa

Several major e-commerce marketplaces have continued to allow listings for routers falsely claiming to support mobile 5G connectivity despite previously being alerted to the issue.

In December 2024, MyBroadband drew the attention of Amazon.co.za, Makro, Takealot, and Bob Shop to dozens of listings on their websites for Wi-Fi routers advertising mobile 5G capability.

Less tech-savvy customers may quickly have assumed these routers are great bargains considering their prices were often well under R1,000, while well-known 5G routers typically start at roughly R3,000.

However, a perusal of the devices’ specifications and a Google Search for 5G speeds would have revealed that the routers’ actual claimed mobile network performance was on par with low-end 4G devices.

MyBroadband initially thought the issue might stem from the sellers using “5G” to refer to support for 5GHz Wi-Fi connectivity.

The feature has been confused with mobile 5G due to Wi-Fi manufacturers often attaching “_5G” to the names of 5GHz networks by default.

However, whereas 5G refers to a mobile network technology that can run on various frequency spectrum bands, 5GHz refers to a specific unlicensed band used for Wi-Fi services.

This excuse would not have been justifiable, as even then, using the term “5G” would have been deliberately misleading.

Regardless, the vast majority of the routers with the “5G” branding did not support 5GHz Wi-Fi either.

MyBroadband reported the problem and infringing listings to the retailers.

Bob Shop, Makro, and Takealot notified us they would remove the infringing listings and explain to the sellers why the action was taken and how they could correct their listings.

Amazon.co.za also thanked MyBroadband for bringing the issue to its attention and said it was investigating the products in question.

To see whether the interventions had a lasting impact, MyBroadband again searched these online stores in February 2025 for any falsely advertised 5G router listings.

Unfortunately, just a quick search for “5G router” revealed numerous such products on Amazon.co.za, Makro, and Takealot, including some that were previously listed.

In many cases, the products were featured prominently, which suggests they should have been picked up easily.

Three out of the top five listings on Amazon.co.za — listed together in the top search bar —were falsely advertising 5G support.

Four out of the top 10 on Takealot committed the same infringement, including two in the first five and the top overall result.

The infringing listings on Makro and Bob Shop were less prominent.

On Makro, the first falsely advertised 5G router appeared in the third row of the search results, followed by two more in the fifth and sixth rows.

Bob Shop had just one listing which falsely advertised 5G support — the second result overall.

MyBroadband again alerted the e-commerce companies to the problem and asked why detecting and removing these listings appeared to be a challenge.

By the time of publication, only Bob Shop and Makro had responded to our query.

Bob Shop promptly removed the one infringing listing we reported. The store said it had actively engaged with sellers to ensure their 4G and 5G router listings met industry standards since MyBroadband first highlighted the issue.

Bob Shop said most sellers responded positively, making necessary corrections to prevent confusion.

“We also recognise that technology evolves quickly,” the company said.

“That’s why our team stays up to date with changes in the connectivity industry, using this knowledge to strengthen our marketplace monitoring.”

“Beyond direct communication with sellers, our platform includes tools to flag and review potentially misleading listings.

Makro did not directly acknowledge the listings we pointed out.

The company said its marketplace product descriptions are provided by the respective sellers, who must agree to terms and conditions, including regulations such as the Consumer Protection Act.

“Inaccuracies found by our compliance team are always addressed with sellers and these products are either amended accordingly or removed from sale,” Makro said.

“Where suppliers are found to have repeatedly used inaccurate or potentially misleading descriptions, further action is taken, which can include being suspended from our marketplace platform.”

It remains unclear why Amazon.co.za and Takealot continued to allow sellers to list products as 5G-capable when they were not.