All about telecom: iMobility supercharges South Africa 5G access

5G rollouts are creating a stir in some developing nations. While governments are eager to have the latest generation of mobile technology, not all nations are 5G-ready. That’s leading to some innovative solutions to meet consumer 5G needs.

Two of those innovators are Nazeer Adam and Trevor Steyn.

We know the wonderful work that you’ve been doing, but for the benefit of our listeners and for customers and partners, could you please tell us briefly about iMobility? How did iMobility start and what are its aims?

Nazeer: iMobility started business in December 2016. So, it’s just over 8 years now that iMobility has been running. Time goes by so quickly.

We’ve predominantly been a provider of wholesale telecom services in the market, in the South African market and we have multiple platforms within the business, predominantly focusing round voice.

These platforms range from your standard SIP trunking to your unified communications, CKS contact centre etcetera.

iMobility has always had a vision to differentiate in the market in everything that we do from how we engage with our partners to how we treat our staff, and it’s an amazing journey.

And like I said, time flies by so fast and we’re loving it. And we’re looking to take the business to that next level.

Trevor: On a systems point of view, we just like to differentiate ourselves by having 100% uptime and quality of service on all of our products.

Recently iMobility delivered a new 5G project enabling 5G SIM distribution in South Africa. 5G rollouts have been picking up pace in SA, but the country is still a patchwork of various mobile network generations. What is contributing to the progress of 5G or lack of progress and what market potential do you see in 5G SIM deals?

Nazeer: That’s a good question. So yeah, it’s positive. There’s been some, massive rollouts with regards to 5G in the South African market.

According to an article published on data from Africa Analysis, the country now has 50% of South Africans with access to 5G coverage and this is a significant number.

There are still some challenges around devices being supportive of 5G and that’s one of the biggest challenges.

We’ve been very fortunate with regards to load shedding. Previously, this was a big challenge, but in recent months it stopped. We had a bit of a scare over the weekend where it started again.

So, we’re just hoping that will not continue and power won’t be a challenge. But overall, yes, related to Africa Analysis, there’s now about 10.8 million subscribers that are active on 5G in South Africa.

I think the more that the coverage grows, according to Africa Analysis, by 2029 we’re looking at about 73% of 5G coverage in South Africa and potentially 42 million subscribers.

So, there’s huge growth predicted in this sector and we’re really excited to be part of it and look forward to what’s coming.

Having a 5G network is one thing but delivering it to customers who are often operating on legacy protocols is a big technical undertaking. What were the challenges of connecting your customers to the 5G network?

Trevor: One of the biggest challenges service providers in South Africa face is they’ve invested a lot of money into their current billing systems, which haven’t kept up to the current technologies.

As a result, we needed a solution to bridge the gap between these legacy technologies and the newer 5G standards like CHF integration into Radius and Diameter, so that our current service providers can keep using the billing systems and deploy these products quickly and efficiently in the networks.

With Squire’s help, we’ve managed to accomplish this goal, and it’s working well for us.

Nazeer Adam, CEO at iMobility

Trevor Steyn, Technical Manager at iMobility

Find out more about iMobility by visiting www.impgroup.co.za and learn about 5G core products at www.squire-technologies.co.uk/5g-core-products.

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