{"id":556014,"date":"2024-08-19T11:01:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T09:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=556014"},"modified":"2024-08-19T15:04:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:04:04","slug":"cell-c-working-on-5g-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/5g\/556014-cell-c-working-on-5g-launch.html","title":{"rendered":"Cell C working on 5G launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cell C chief technology officer Schalk Visser has told MyBroadband that the company is busy testing 5G with its network partners, Vodacom and MTN, in its lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s coming along well,” Visser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Cell C is also busy working on adding support for voice over LTE (VoLTE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“VoLTE is basically ready on the core side,” Visser said. “Now it’s just getting the OEM approvals through the gate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VoLTE lets cellular subscribers make and receive phone calls without the network first dropping them back to 3G, disconnecting them from the faster LTE data service during the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C is also busy migrating subscribers to a new billing system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visser said they moved 1.2 million prepaid subscribers across in the second week of August, with the remaining prepaid subscribers set to migrate by the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C recently notified subscribers about the billing system migration and warned that it could cause some disruptions on the evening of Sunday, 25 August. The notice is reproduced below<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

We are pleased to inform you that Cell C is currently migrating to a new Business Support System platform. This upgrade aims to enhance your services and overall experience with us. Please note that there may be temporary service disruptions for Cell C Subscribers between 10:00 PM on 25 August 2024 and 4:00 AM on 26 August 2024 due to the migration activities. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and sincerely appreciate your understanding and patience. Thank you for choosing Cell C.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Word that Cell C is busy testing 5G is significant, as the operator reaffirmed its position earlier this year that it was in no rush<\/a> to adopt the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C is the only South African mobile operator that doesn’t offer 5G connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jorge Mendes, Cell C CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Cell C is currently in the process of modernising its core network to the latest architecture necessary for 5G deployment and progressing discussions with the network partner,” the company reiterated in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Cell C said it had recently completed its network migration, which involved establishing agreements with MTN and Vodacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN currently provides Cell C with a virtual radio access network for its prepaid and mobile virtual network operator subscribers, while Cell C’s contract customers roam on Vodacom’s network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes explained that the company had to update its wholesale and roaming agreements<\/a> with MTN and Vodacom. This has now happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although both MTN and Vodacom have 5G networks, having access to their radio networks wasn’t the only requirement for Cell C to offer the technology, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C first had to upgrade its core network to support the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendes previously said Cell C wasn’t in any rush to launch 5G products as it “unlocks nothing” for consumers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendes added that he isn’t knocking 5G as a technology, as it benefits network operators by helping them support greater traffic volumes more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However, the benefits 5G unlocks for consumers is not obvious, not transparent,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“2G to 3G unlocked data, 3G to 4G unlocked [streaming] video, 4G to 5G unlocks nothing,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendes explained that while 5G connectivity offers significant benefits for enterprise purposes, operators such as Vodacom and MTN struggle to monetise their 5G networks at a consumer level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, he said its network partners won’t charge more to let Cell C customers roam on their 5G networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s in their interests not to charge more,” Mendes said, explaining that operators want as much traffic on their 5G networks as possible because it’s more efficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C is busy testing 5G, working on voice over LTE support, and migrating its customers to a new billing system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":474397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62528],"tags":[355,42,70359,41],"class_list":["post-556014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5g","tag-cell-c","tag-mtn","tag-schalk-visser","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556014"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556156,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556014\/revisions\/556156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}