Quick thinking

South Africa’s internet is being put on the fast-track times 10, with the completion of its first trial of an ultra-high-speed 5.5G network.

The tests were conducted by mobile giant Huawei and MTN South Africa at MTN headquarters in Johannesburg, reports Engineering News.

Using spectrum in the millimetre wave and C-band under a trial licence and operated at the MTN site on 5G standalone mode, the tests achieved 8.6 gigabytes per second (Gb/s).

According to MTN, a 5.5G network has 10 times the network performance compared to current 5G technology, which means 10 Gb/s headline connection speeds, 10 times the number of internet-of-things connections, or reducing latency by a factor of 10.

The improved capacity and speed will facilitate advanced use cases such as 24K extended reality, high-speed fixed wireless access and holographic conferencing as well as improved 5G private networks, says MTN South Africa chief technology officer Rami Farah.