Uncapped fixed-5G price battle — up to 500Mbps for R449

South African mobile network operators invest a lot in their 5G networks to provide customers with reliable connectivity and expand coverage, and uncapped fixed-5G packages are available for as little as R449 per month.

MTN, Rain, and Telkom have expanded their 5G coverage to the point where they can offer the technology in most of the country’s major metros.

On the other hand, Cell C has yet to launch 5G, and although it plans to support the cellular technology, it says it isn’t in any rush.

MyBroadband compared pricing and fair usage policies (FUPs) for uncapped fixed-5G packages available through MTN, Rain, and Telkom. We also included Afrihost, Axxess, and Supersonic, which resell MTN 5G products.

The most affordable uncapped fixed-5G package available in South Africa comes from Axxess. For R449 a month, Axxess promises that its Standard 5G package can reach speeds of up to 500Mbps.

It should be noted that Axxess’ fixed-5G packages all offer best-effort speeds. They vary based on the usage thresholds specified in the FUP.

The Axxess Standard 5G plan lets customers use 300GB of data at full speed, after which it throttles the connection to 2Mbps for the remainder of the month.

Axxess’ Pro 5G, Pro 5G+, and Ultra 5G packages up the threshold to 600GB, 1TB, and 1.6TB, respectively.

The next most affordable option is MTN’s Home Premium fixed-5G product, which offers up to 35Mbps for R499 monthly.

The package has a 500GB FUP cap, after which speeds are throttled to 10Mbps. It should be noted that this is the highest throttled speed offered with uncapped fixed-5G packages in South Africa.

Rain is the only provider not implementing an FUP with its fixed-5G packages.

Its Rain One packages include a fixed-5G connection with uncapped data and free monthly calls and data for two phones for R595 per month.

The included fixed-5G package offers speeds of up to 30Mbps. However, Rain One customers can upgrade to 60Mbps or 100Mbps+ for R200 or R400, bringing the total price to R795 or R995, respectively.

Telkom’s 5G packages’ FUPs are more complex than the rest, with the operator throttling connections to 4Mbps after the first threshold is met for 50GB of usage before throttling them further to 2Mbps.

Prices shown for Telkom’s uncapped fixed-5G packages are for indoor-only routers. The operator also offers packages for outdoor fixed-5G, which hold higher pricing.

The table below compares all the uncapped fixed-5G packages available in South Africa. Most providers, except Telkom, offer month-to-month plans. Prices listed for Telkom are for 24-month contracts.