Good news for 5G router prices in South Africa

South Africa’s 5G router prices have reduced significantly in 2024.

The development of 5G customer premise equipment (CPE) was dealt a major blow when the United States barred American companies from working with and using Huawei technologies.

The Chinese firm was considered the leader in 5G research and development, with 13,473 patents, followed by Qualcomm and Samsung, with 12,719 and 9,299 patents, respectively.

The latter’s patents are primarily for use in smartphones, while Huawei dominates in the CPE and network infrastructure segments.

That has made it a major challenge for original equipment manufacturers to design and produce high-performance 5G routers.

Although 5G router availability and variety continue to be limited, the pricing of the handful of available devices in South Africa has at least come down in the past year.

The most affordable 5G router in December 2024 is the ZTE MC888D, which has succeeded the MC801A as the preferred option for Axxess fixed-5G packages.

The MC801A previously cost R3,999 when bought with an Axxess or Afrihost fixed-5G package on MTN’s network.

At the time of publication, Axxess was offering the improved MC888D for R1,499, marked down from R4,499.

Afrihost has retained the ZTE MC801A but also reduced its price to R2,999.

It should be noted that these prices are conditional on the customer keeping their fixed-5G package for a specified number of months as per the ISPs’ terms and conditions.

However, MyBroadband also found the regular prepaid prices of certain 5G routers had declined.

For example, MTN partner Cell Network was selling the Huawei E6878 5G pocket Wi-Fi router for R3,499, where it was priced at R4,999 in January 2024.

Afrihost also offered the TP-Link NX510V at R3,999, significantly cheaper than its lowest online price of R7,878 in January 2024.

The table below summarises the changes in prices of 5G routers that were on sale in South Africa in January and December 2024.

Secondhand bargains galore — but beware fake 5G devices

Another model we included in our January 2024 was the Nokia Fastmile 5G router, although we only found a used unit on sale then.

Where it previously cost R4,299 from Technmobi, we found another used model for R2,699 on Bob Shop in our latest analysis.

We also discovered that multiple secondhand ZTE MC801A 5G routers were selling for under R1,000.

It is likely that some of these models were used by former MTN fixed-5G customers. However, it would be advisable to ensure they were not from Rain’s 5G packages.

Rain has told MyBroadband that it did not sell any of its 5G routers, and all those provided to customers were free to use only for as long as they had active subscriptions. They must be returned when cancelling.

The only 5G routers that Rain sold to customers were part of a Black Friday deal in 2019.

All of these routers were Huawei models, so unless the router on sale is from that brand, it could be a red flag that the unit is being sold illegally.

Another important factor to note when shopping for a 5G router online is that many listings — even on prominent marketplaces — falsely advertise 5G capability.

Takealot had numerous resellers listing 4G/5G routers with no actual capability to connect to 5G networks.

One argument for their “5G” claim could be that they support the 5GHz Wi-Fi band. However, based on the specs provided, they don’t even do that.

Bob Shop and Leroy Merlin were also selling unbranded “4G/5G” routers for R1,499.

Apart from a different logo, the design of this router appeared very similar to the Huawei 5G CPE or CPE Pro.

However, scouring the device details revealed it was the Huawei B628-350, which is a 4G-only router that supports up to 300Mbps download speeds and 150Mbps uploads.

It’s also not a very good 4G router. Its maximum download speeds are far behind the 1.2Gbps supported by top-end 4G routers.

To ensure a router is actually 5G-capable, inspect the specifications closely and look out for the modem and supported speeds.

Below we have listed all the 5G routers that were available for under R5,000 in early December 2024.

ZTE MC888D — New from R1,499 (Axxess)

ZTE MC801A — New from R2,999 (Afrihost), used from R979 (Bob Shop)

Nokia Sharelink Fastmile 5G — Used from R2,699 (Bob Shop)

Huawei E6878 5G mobile router — New from R3,499 (Cell Network)

Vodacom X25 Max 5G (MediaTek T750) — New from R3,599 (Bob Shop and Technmobi)

TP-Link NX510V 5G — From R3,999 (Afrihost)