South Africa

South Africa’s communications regulator completed a delayed spectrum auction, announcing all six qualifying bidders picked up frequencies in the various spectrum bands on offer and raising a total of ZAR14. 4 billion ($960. 7 million).

South Africa’s communications regulator made the final preparations for its postponed spectrum action, with the three stage process set to finally begin tomorrow (8 March).

A much-delayed auction of 4G and 5G spectrum in South Africa attracted broad support, with communications regulator ICASA revealing it received applications from six operators.

South Africa’s communications regulator revealed six companies applied to take part in its multi-frequency spectrum auction including all of the market’s existing operators, with the sale expected to begin by the end of March.

MTN Group told Mobile World Live it is mulling the strategic and financial merits of the sale and leaseback of up to half its tower portfolio in home market South Africa, as part of a broader review of its operations.

Operator rain and Huawei staked a claim as the first to launch commercial standalone (SA) 5G in Africa, deploying initial coverage in the South African city of Cape Town.

Earlier this year, we kicked off a series of blog posts to discuss how suited various markets were to launching 5G. As part of the series, we want to look at South Africa this month with its recent 5G launch.