Cell C has soft-launched 5G
Cell C confirmed that it quietly enabled 5G on its network following a lengthy period of testing after Vodacom and MTN enabled the technology through their wholesale partnerships with the company.
“Cell C customers are able to access 5G services through our network partnership agreements in enabled coverage areas,” a spokesperson told MyBroadband.
The mobile operator has not made a big deal about launching 5G, because it plans to launch with a splash when it starts offering products that can benefit from the technology.
Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes previously said that the company was in no rush to launch 5G because it did not unlock any substantial benefit for customers.
He clarified that he wasn’t knocking 5G as a technology, noting that it benefits operators by enabling more efficient support for higher traffic volumes.
“However, the benefits 5G unlocks for consumers are not obvious, not transparent,” said 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 the enterprise level, mobile operators such as MTN and Vodacom struggle to monetise their 5G infrastructure at the consumer level.
Asked whether that meant that Vodacom and MTN would charge Cell C more for access to 5G, Mendes said they would not.
“It’s in their interests not to charge more,” Mendes said. This was because operators want as much traffic on their 5G networks as possible because it’s more efficient, he said.
Cell C has not operated its own radio access network since 2023, after adopting an “asset-light model” to continue operating without competing with Vodacom and MTN’s network investments.
The transition was not smooth, but it paid dividends in the long term. Cell C traded its capital expenditure budget for operational expenditure and gained access to South Africa’s best mobile networks.
Widest network coverage in South Africa
Cell C’s strategy to switch off its own towers dates back to 2019, when it signed an expanded roaming agreement with MTN.
Cell C then surprised the industry when it announced in January 2021 that it had begun migrating its contract and broadband customers off its network — not to MTN, but to Vodacom.
The company then explained that its prepaid and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) customers would use the network provided by MTN, while its postpaid customers would use Vodacom.
Under their deal, MTN would build and operate what Cell C termed a virtual radio access network (RAN). Cell C’s deal with Vodacom was a more traditional roaming agreement.
Mendes later explained to MyBroadband that the MTN-built virtual RAN uses Cell C’s radio frequency spectrum and offers the added benefit of roaming on MTN’s network.
It later emerged in a court case that Vodacom brought against the industry regulator, ICASA, that MTN and Cell C also had a spectrum-pooling arrangement, which the regulator approved.
Recent developments at Cell C mean its customers will no longer be assigned to the MTN or Vodacom networks based on whether they are prepaid, postpaid, or wholesale subscribers.
As part of its listing on the JSE, Cell C has acquired the Comm Equipment Company (CEC), regaining full control over its postpaid base following Blu Label’s “Project Boston” in 2020.
Cell C also brokered a Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) roaming deal with Vodacom, which Mendes said was also a key step in finally enabling 5G access.
MOCN roaming allows customers of several mobile operators to use the same radio network while each operator retains its own core network, services, billing, and customer relationships.
Mendes also previously said 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.
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