Which Countries Have Launched 5G in Africa?

5G has seen significant adoption not only in the country but across Africa as a whole in the past few years. Cellular carriers across the continent have been working hard to expand their current 5G coverage networks.

Kenya

5G trials started in early 2020 in Kenya by the country’s leading telco Safaricom, a year after 5G networks went commercial in the U.S. and South Korea. Safaricom 5G was eventually rolled out to the public in October 2022 and was the sole provider in Kenya for ten months until Airtel launched its 5G network in July 2023.

Safaricom 5G is now available in select towns in 35 counties nationwide including Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi to Marsabit County. Airtel 5G is accessible in 32 counties in the country. Late last month, Equitel launched their 5G network which is available across 370 locations from the coast, the lakeside and the north rift.

With three players in the country, Kenya saw positive growth in terms of 5G mobile subscriptions. Second quarter sector statistics report financial year 2023/2024 show that subscriptions grew to 586,684 users from 509,737. This is a reflection of the telco’s efforts to expand 5G coverage, making 5G bundles and devices – both smartphones and routers affordable.

Tanzania

Tanzania has three carriers that have already launched 5G networks. Vodacom was the first to launch 5G in September 2022, followed by Tigo in February 2023 and Airtel in August 2023.

Vodacom 5G is available in 230 locations with coverage extending from Zanzibar, Mbeya, Iringa, Mwanza, Arusha and Dodoma. Tigo 5G is accesisble in Dar Es Salaam, Dodoma, and Zanzibar. Airtel 5G is available in select towns in Tanzania including Dar Es Salaam.

Uganda

MTN Uganda launched 5G in July(28th) last year and plans to increase coverage across the capital Kampala(Lugogo and Bugoloobi) by the end of this year. MTN Uganda, Sylvia Mulinge said that the carrier’s year plan was to convert all the network’s base sites across major towns to 5G.

That same weekend(July 30th) after the MTN Uganda 5G launch, Airtel Uganda launched its 5G network in Kampala. The two are the biggest networks in Uganda with MTN having 18.2 million subscribers(52%) while Airtel has 15.9 million subscribers(46%).

Somalia

Somalia launched its first 5G network in January this year with Somtel taking the lead for its four million mobile subscribers. Just last week(March 2024), Hormuud Telecom also announced their 5G services offering free 5G plan upgrades to 4G subscribers.

Hormuud Telecom is available in Mogadishu, Dobey, Merca, Kismayo, Galkayo, Afgoye, Dhusamareeb, Beledwayne and Baidoa. The telco said its 5G network is up to 81% in the region.

Ethiopia

In Septemeber last year, Ethio Telecom launched their 5G network available in Addis Ababa(145 sites). Safaricom is available in the country but they only offer 2G, 3G and 4G services in 11 cities in Ethiopia.

Safaricom is the country’s second telco and reported 9 million subscribers in January and now covers 33% of the nation(2242 base stations).

Here’s a brief breakdown of 5G across other African Countries:

Compared to last year, more countries have commercially launched their 5G networks with more increasing the areas they’re currently piloting and scheduling official launches during or before the end of the year.

Very few countries have been left behind focusing on increasing their 3G and 4G coverage which is still a good thing.

Country	Year - Trial Started/ Commerical Launch	Carrier	Trial Phase/ Commercial	Cities
Botswana	November 2022	Orange	Commercial	Gaborone and Francistown
Mauritius	August 2023	Emtel	Commercial
	August 2021	Chili Mauritius	Commercial	Port Louis, Vacoas, Curepipe, Quatre Bornes, Triolet, Goodlands, Centre de Flacq, Bel Air Rivière Sèche, Mahébourg, and Saint Pierre.
	July 2021	My.t mobile	Commercial	Bagatelle Mall, La City Trainon, Ebene Cybercity, and the University of Mauritius
Madagscar	August 2020	Telma	Commercial	Antananarivo and Taomasina.
	To Be Launched End of 2024	Orange
Seychelles	September 2023	Cable & Wireless Seychelles	Commerical	Victoria, Anse Boileau, Bel Ombre, Beau Vallon, Cascade, Anse Royale, Takamaka, Port Glaud, Mahe, Praslin, and La Digue.
South Africa	October 2022	Telkom	Commercial	Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Capetown.
	May 2020	Vodacom	Commercial	Johannesburg, Cape Town, Gaunteng, Bloemfontein, Gqeberha, KwaZulu-Natal, East London, and Durban.
	June 2020	MTN	Commercial	Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Polokwane, East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, and Durban.
	February 2019	Rain	Commercial	56 regions in South Africa
Togo	November 2020	TOGOCOM	Commercial	Lomé
Zimbabwe	February 2022	Econet	Commercial	Harare, Chitungwiza, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Gweru
Zambia	November 2022	MTN	Commercial	65% coverage in Lusaka, Ndola, Solwezi, Chingola, Kalumbila and Kitwe.
	July 2023	Airtel	Commercial	Lusaka
Nigeria	September 2022	MTN	Commercial	Lagos, Kaduna, Zaria, Abuja, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Aba, Jos, Owerri, Engu, Abeokuta, Oyo, Benin City and Maiduguri.
	June 2023	Airtel	Commercial	Abuja, Rivers, Lagos, Oshogbo and Ogun.
	Launching This Year	MAFAB Communications	-	30 cities - Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Enugu, Port Harcout and Abuja
Gambia	June 2023	QCell	Commercial	Banjul
Mozambique	May 2023	Vodacom	Commercial	Maputo, Matola, Nampula, Nacala, Munhava, Maquinino, Chipanga, Beira, and Tete.
Egypt	January 2024	Telecom Egypt	Trial Phase	New Administrative Capital.
Guinea-Conakry	Launching This Year	Guinee Telecom
Senegal	March 2024	Sonatel -Orange	Trial Phase	Dakar
	May 2024	Free - Saga Africa Holdings	Trial Phase
Mali	July 2021	Orange	Trial Phase	Bamako
Sierra Leone	September 2023	Orange	Commercial	Freetown
	October 2023	Africell SL	Commercial	Freetown
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)	June 2023	Orange	Trial Phase
	November 2023	Vodacom	Trial Phase
Sudan	May 2022	Sudatel	Trial Phase
South Sudan		MTN, Zain, Digitel	Trial Phase
Algeria	To Be Launched End of 2024	Djezzy, Mobilis, Ooredoo	Trial Phase
Tunisia	To Be Launched End of 2024	Ooredoo	Trial Phase
Morocco	To Be Launched End of 2024
Angola	July 2022	Africell	Commercial	Luanda, Benguela Province
	December 2023	Unitell	Commercial	Talatona, Cuemba (Bie province), Ingombota, and Maianga, Alto Zambeze-Cazombo (Moxico)
Côte d'Ivoire	December 2021	MTN	Trial Phase	Abidjan
	September 2022	Orange	Trial Phase	Abidjan
Malawi	May 2023	Telekom Networks Malawi	Commercial	Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba.
Rwanda	October 2023	MTN Rwanda	Trial Phase	Kigali
Benin	February 2024	MTN	Trial Phase
	February 2023	Celtiis	Trial Phase
Burundi	July 2024		Trial Phase
Libya	To Be Launched End of 2024	Al Madar	Trial Phase
Republic of the Congo	October 2022	MTN	Trial Phase
	June 2023	Orange	Trial Phase
	November 2023	Vodacom	Trial Phase
Mauritania	November 2023	Mattel	Trial Phase
Namibia	March 2024	MTC	Trial Phase
Gabon	November 2019	Gabon Telecom	Trial Phase
Lesotho	August 2018	Vodacom	Commercial
	February 2024	Econet	Commercial
Eswatini	August 2022	MTN	Trial Phase

Africa has over 1.2 billion mobile connections with over 650 million unique mobile users which makes it imperative for an upgrade to 5G.

It is predicted that 5G will impact various industry sectors – ranging from manufacturing, agriculture and retail and will contribute $26 billion to the continent’s economy by 2030.

GSMA Intelligence’s recent figures show that 5G connections are going to represent over half of mobile connections by the end of this decade.

It has been fascinating to see how quickly 5G has been adopted compared to 4G – it rose to 1.6 billion connections by the end of last year and is forecasted to reach 5.5 billion by 2030.

NOW READ: 5G Users Increase in Kenya

The beginning of this year saw 261 operators in 101 countries launch 5G networks including Africa with most carriers, especially in the continent opting for the low-band spectrum or the mid-band spectrum.

The biggest challenge with the 5G rollout in Africa has been limited 5G network coverage, and the high cost of 5G devices and most of them are satisfied with the previous 4G and 3G networks.

The future is looking bright as mobile operators and enterprises are working together to unlock 5G’s superior capabilities. There’s a sizeable market opportunity which heavily depends on policies that enable network investments which include regulators availing more spectrum for faster 5G adoption.

It is still imperative for Africa to keep up with the global 5G adoption which can be done using the phased approach which is a sustainable way to ensure consumers and enterprises enjoy enhanced connectivity.

Scaling 5G across Africa will still need collaborations between stakeholders which includes cost-effective network deployment, partnerships between consumers and enterprises to bring relevant localized use cases, and coming up with programs that make 5G devices more affordable for the mass market.

There’s a strong demand for high-speed connectivity, especially with the youth who are data-hungry when it comes to consuming multimedia content(video streaming, music, gaming, live sports, cloud storage), mobile and cloud-based gaming.

Many phone makers are rushing to release affordable 5G devices to allow customers to connect to the network.