en.Wedoany.com Reported - South African mobile operator Rain and Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei are accelerating the nationwide deployment of sub-1GHz Massive MIMO (Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) 5G networks in South Africa, planning to build a commercial network with "thousands of sites."

The two companies stated that Rain has achieved large-scale deployment of sub-1GHz Massive MIMO in major cities across South Africa. Commercial results show that, compared to traditional 4T4R equipment (a standard base station antenna configuration using four transmit and four receive antennas in LTE and 5G networks), uplink coverage has improved by 5 dB, downlink coverage by 3 dB, and network capacity has "increased by up to three times."

Huawei noted that this deployment marks the first large-scale commercial implementation of Massive MIMO technology in sub-1GHz Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) spectrum in South Africa. While Massive MIMO has become the foundation for high-capacity 5G networks, extending this technology to low-band FDD spectrum requires years of innovation in antenna design, radio architecture, signal processing, and interference management. Huawei stated that through its partnership with Rain, it has successfully translated this innovation into a practical network.

Huawei added that, for the first time, low-band spectrum can provide the wide-area coverage and deep indoor penetration traditionally associated with lower frequencies, while simultaneously achieving the capacity and spectral efficiency gains of Massive MIMO. This advancement will improve user experience, increase network capacity, expand 5G coverage, and utilize low-band spectrum more efficiently.

Fang Xiang, Vice President of Huawei and President of the company's Wireless Network Solutions division, stated that the deployment of sub-1GHz Massive MIMO 5G sites demonstrates network competitiveness in terms of spectral efficiency, coverage, latency, uplink performance, and energy efficiency. Conrad Leigh, CEO of Rain South Africa, noted that the company has been collaborating with Huawei since launching South Africa's first commercial 5G network in 2019.