{"id":664029,"date":"2026-08-22T18:09:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=664029"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T19:28:59","slug":"cell-c-has-soft-launched-5g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/5g\/664029-cell-c-has-soft-launched-5g.html","title":{"rendered":"Cell C has soft-launched 5G"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCell C customers are able to access 5G services through our network partnership agreements in enabled coverage areas,\u201d a spokesperson told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He clarified that he wasn\u2019t knocking 5G as a technology, noting that it benefits operators by enabling more efficient support for higher traffic volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, the benefits 5G unlocks for consumers are not obvious, not transparent,\u201d said Mendes. \u201c2G to 3G unlocked data, 3G to 4G unlocked streaming video, 4G to 5G unlocks nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether that meant that Vodacom and MTN would charge Cell C more for access to 5G, Mendes said they would not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in their interests not to charge more,\u201d Mendes said. This was because operators want as much traffic on their 5G networks as possible because it\u2019s more efficient, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C has not operated its own radio access network since 2023, after adopting an \u201casset-light model\u201d to continue operating without competing with Vodacom and MTN\u2019s network investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s best mobile networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Widest network coverage in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Jorge Mendes, Cell C CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cell C\u2019s strategy to switch off its own towers dates back to 2019, when it signed an expanded roaming agreement with MTN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2014 not to MTN, but to Vodacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under their deal, MTN would build and operate what Cell C termed a virtual radio access network (RAN). Cell C\u2019s deal with Vodacom was a more traditional roaming agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendes later explained to MyBroadband that the MTN-built virtual RAN uses Cell C\u2019s radio frequency spectrum and offers the added benefit of roaming on MTN\u2019s network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It later emerged in a court case that Vodacom brought<\/a> against the industry regulator, ICASA, that MTN and Cell C also had a spectrum-pooling arrangement, which the regulator approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s \u201cProject Boston<\/a>\u201d in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendes also previously said that having access to Vodacom\u2019s and MTN\u2019s networks wasn\u2019t the only requirement for Cell C to adopt 5G \u2014 it also had to upgrade its core network to support the technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C has enabled 5G functionality on its network through its infrastructure partners, Vodacom and MTN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":639881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2091196209369055446","_sma_facebook_post_id":"120850204637381_1480231674128811","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18073749629455248","_sma_threads_post_id":"18092951735414343","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62528],"tags":[102125,355,58256],"class_list":["post-664029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5g","tag-blu-label","tag-cell-c","tag-jorge-mendes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664029"}],"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=664029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664030,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664029\/revisions\/664030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}