Huawei and rain South Africa are expanding the deployment of a sub-1 GHz Massive MIMO 5G network, with plans to roll out the technology across thousands of commercial sites to strengthen connectivity nationwide.
The deployment extends rain’s 5G network by combining the broad coverage of low-band spectrum with Massive MIMO technology, delivering improved indoor connectivity, greater network capacity and enhanced coverage. According to the companies, the network has already been deployed across major South African cities, achieving uplink coverage improvements of 5 dB, downlink gains of 3 dB and up to three times the capacity of conventional 4T4R equipment.
The companies said the rollout marks South Africa’s first large-scale commercial deployment of Massive MIMO technology in the sub-1 GHz FDD spectrum, highlighting continued innovation in the country’s 5G infrastructure. The initiative also reflects the long-standing partnership between Huawei and rain to improve spectrum efficiency, network performance and energy efficiency while supporting growing demand for high-speed connectivity.
