The mass media have have paid little attention, but those with their fingers on the tech pulse hailed a breakthrough this week when the data-only mobile network Rain launched 5G into parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria. This is the first 5G offering on the African continent and among the few launched worldwide. Rain CEO Willem Roos joined us on Rational Radio this week to explain how 5G is a massive improvement on existing broadband options of ADSL and even Fibre – delivering minimum download speeds of 200MB/sec with up to 700MB/sec measured. Rain is quietly rolling out its network, offering it to parts of Gauteng as a first step.
Willem Roos joins us now. He’s the man who founded OUTsurance and has moved across into a completely different area. Today we celebrate – with him – the launch of 5G in South Africa. We haven’t seen each other for a while but I’ve been following your progress. Any significance in this lucky day number 18 launching 5G into South Africa? One of the first in the world and the first on the continent.
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Nothing key to that date Alec. We’re working so hard to get our network up and running and to get everything in place so we can start offering it to clients, so the moment we were ready and confident that we could push the button, we did so. We’ve been working day and night for the past couple of weeks and I’m very proud of our team. We think this is a groundbreaking event for South Africa, to benefit from a phenomenal technological revolution we’re seeing, so we’re very chuffed to have gotten 5G into the market.
What is the difference between 5G and what we have at the moment?
5G is the next generation wireless technology that the worldwide standards and bodies have agreed on. It really is around three pillars. The first is a massive increase in speed and capacity. So it’s just much, much faster than 4G – up to 10 times faster. It’s probably 20, 30, 40 times that capacity per tower. It’s a fantastic promise because you can connect millions of – Internet of Things – devices to the network without slowing it down. Sorry for a few technical terms but then you get stuff like critical machine to machine communication and high availability and that can introduce some of the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We’re talking about smart cities, virtual and augmented reality, drone deliveries etc. Those things are a bit in the future though for ordinary South Africans, at this point in time 5G I suppose, it really means super or ultra fast Internet at your home at a really affordable price. Because it’s wireless, the installation is very easy you just buy a router and you plug it in and you’re immediately connected to the Internet. Studies have shown that if you increase broadband penetration in a country, you also get a bit of a lift in economic growth and that’s really something I think we need in South Africa.
So what took you away from OUTsurance – a very successful company – to this whole new line of data and cellphone networks?
I am still involved at OUTsurance – I still sit on the board – but I felt it was time for a change for me personally and a fresh pair of legs at OUTsurance. That business is still doing phenomenally well. I was very excited to join Rain – it really was in its infancy – so we still consider it to be a startup. If you have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, it’s really nice to be involved in something new and in something impactful. If we can reduce the costs of data and bring the latest innovation to the continent and to the country, we can do our bit to help South Africa be a better place to live.
And you certainly know your partners – Paul Harris and Michael Jordaan – from the FirstRand Group. Just to go back to the whole idea of 5G. It’s launching today, but where can one pick it up and how do you go about doing that and what differences are you gonna see?
That’s actually quite simple. The first phase is where we’ve approached our own internal clients –Â a few clients who we know live in good coverage areas – approaching them to see if they don’t want unlimited internet. You get speeds up to 700 megabits a second for for R1,000 a month.
Hang on. 700 megs? I was in the UK and we had fibre there, we got to 180. 700 is off the charts.
It is off the charts, it is truly a revolutionary technology. And I suppose that’s why we’re so excited about it. We think a client should get at least 200 and get up to 700 if they’re in good radio conditions, we obviously can’t guarantee an exact speed, but certainly you should see speeds in excess of 200 megabits. Once we are confident that everything is humming nicely – in the next couple of weeks – we’ll open it up to anybody who lives in our coverage area. You’ll be able to go to our website, see if you’ve got 5G coverage and you just order it. The delivery router is for free. Given that you have no installation costs that’s really good value for money. The routers got the latest Wi-Fi 6 so you have a very fast network in your home as well. If you join, you go through a quick recap process and off you go. At this stage we estimate to provide coverage close to 500,000 homes already in Jo’burg and over the next couple of years we’ll try and expand to most of the metro areas in South Africa.
Just very quickly what suburbs in those areas? I’m sure people are listening now and saying I’m in Bryanston, am I going to be able to get this?
Bryanston certainly has coverage, many suburbs in Jo’burg have good coverage.
Just go to the website in other words.Â
At this point in time we don’t have the coverage map on the website, so what we’ve done is you can leave your name and details and capture the address where you are going to use 5G, and we’ll contact you and see if we can get you hooked up.
I am now moving home. I shouldn’t be putting in fibre. Is this what you’re telling me? Because fibre will give me maybe 100 megabits, with you I could get at least 200 and maybe even 700 megabits.
Most fibre connections max out at 100. There are some providers who can give you more. But our view is that 5G is a really good alternative. Fibre is still very important. We need to get fibre to all of the 5G towers because that’s the only medium that has the big capacity, but we question whether it’s really necessary to dig up all the roads and go through your garden to get this fibre strand into your home. Once the 5G is up in your area, you will get speeds in excess of the vast majority of fibre connections that are currently available.
Congratulations Willem, it’s good talking with you again. The founder of OUTsurance, co-founder of Rain, Willem Roos one of South Africa’s entrepreneurs who is changing the world. I think I’m going to be talking to them quite soon about putting putting this 5G into our new property.
