(Ecofin Agency) - Since August 25, 2018, Lesotho residents have been experiencing the first ever super high broadband in Africa. Indeed, Vodacom, the mobile telecommunications operator launched the 5G network, Reuters reports.

The operator indicates that thanks to this new technology, it is able to offer its clients quality service similar to that of the optical fiber.

It explains that to launch this network in Lesotho, a mountainous and landlocked country, it was assigned a frequency in the 3.5 GHZ bands.

“What we’ve accomplished in Lesotho is an example of what can be achieved in Africa, should the requisite spectrum also be made available”, Shameel Joosub, the managing director of Vodacom group commented in a statement published for the launch of this important infrastructure by Vodacom Lesotho. 

In the statement, the managing director expressed his frustration in view of the difficulties experienced on the main market which is South Africa.

Indeed, since 2017, Vodacom and its competitors have been campaigning to be assigned telecommunication frequencies adapted to their needs and meet the high internet demand expressed by the population but South Africa announced that these frequencies would be assigned during Q1, 2019.

Let’s remind that on July 7, 2018, thanks to the technical expertise of Nokia, Vodacom successfully tested the 5G network in Durba. This successful test proving that it can offer the 5G in South Africa further increased its impatience towards the government’s date for frequencies’ assignment.

Muriel Edjo