South African 5G pioneer Rain has announced further growth for its 5G network, to which it recently added eight new regions.
The operator, which launched in February 2019 offering data-only mobile network services, launched the first standalone 5G network in the country in July 2020. Before that time, non-standalone 5G, which uses 4G or LTE connections, as well as 5G, to provide more speed and data bandwidth, had been available from Rain since late 2019, launching in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Now Rain has expanded its 5G network to eight new towns and cities in Soshanguve, Paarl, Bloemfontein, Klerksdorp, Rustenburg, Strand, Polokwane and Orange Farm.
According to South African technology website MyBroadband, the company claims that it is working on rolling out the 5G network “to all parts of South Africa including small towns". It has also added to its existing coverage in the Cape Town and Johannesburg metropolitan areas.
The company began expanding its 5G footprint to smaller towns in August this year. This means that Potchefstroom in the North West province got Rain 5G ahead of more populous areas like Durban and East London. Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark have also been covered.
This fits in with Rain's plans to cover 5,000 new households with 5G each day for the rest of the year, underlined by its strong targeting of smaller towns.
Rain’s 5G coverage now covers approximately three million households – and will cover many more by the end of 2021 if rollout continues at the pace promised.
