KAMPALA — With fourth-generation (4G) technology still a long way off from full or even significant adoption in Uganda and the region, market leaders, MTN Uganda is looking to take things to another level and score yet another first.
MTN Uganda has showcased the first live demo of 5G network in Uganda in an even presided over by Prime Minister Dr. Ruhana Rugunda who represented President Yoweri Museveni.
This comes after an earlier announcement by the telco to commercially roll out 5G in before 2020 ends.
Earlier in 2018, MTN announced at its headquarters in South Africa, that they have begun the first 5G technology applications trial in Africa, in collaboration with network equipment provider, Ericsson.
The completion of MTN’s first 5G technology and application trials in South Africa saw the telco achieve a throughput of over 20Gbps with less than five minutes latency in the 5G trial.
And now the company appears to be finally bringing the technology to its third-largest market, Uganda, where the company currently has a 4G license.
“5G will make our life better, drive incremental capacity and open up new businesses. MTN as a company is constantly making efforts to break barriers by democratising voice and data connectivity in order to improve subscriber experience,” said MTN Uganda’s CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte.
It is also expected that with an adequate spectrum allocated to the 5G standard, the increased capacity would result in lower data cost to Uganda.
MTN is working with Chinese firm ZTE the market leader in 5G.
ZTE is already working with operators to out 5+.
Yi Yahua, ZTE corporation vice president for Southern Africa, said ZTE is fully supportive of MTN Uganda’s strategy to tap into the potential of modern mobile technologies to serve this country better and move forward with 5G industrialization.