MTN South Africa says that its airfibre offering, MTN Supersonic, has seen enormous growth since launching in March 2021, with the product now being used in over 3.4-million homes.
Airfibre, like Supersonic’s, leverages Gigabit 1 (G1) Radio to transmit internet data, unlike with traditional fibre cables. MTN says Airfibre uses open spectrum frequencies, which lowers the cost to customers.
Users simply need the installation of an A4-sized antenna at their home and this antenna will then communicate with the radio equipment attached to an MTN mobile tower.
MTN says that after passing 10,759 homes in the first month after launching in March, the rate of growth increased rapidly to reach 3.1 million homes in one year. This has continued to reach over 3.4 million in May this year.
“We are continuing to see impressive growth as demand for Airfibre as an alternative to traditional fibre continues. Our aim is to continue delivering and innovating so that more homes are covered and more people who are not able to access fibre can still be connected to a high-speed and reliable data solution, and through it, global information superhighway,” says Megan Nicholas, MD for MTN Supersonic.
Supersonic was initially launched in Soweto, Mamelodi, Fairlands, and Honeydew, and now coverage reaches across SA, traversing Cape Town, greater Johannesburg and Pretoria to Gqeberha, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and George.
“This geographic expansion is continuing as the rollout costs of AirFibre are significantly lower than conventional fibre thanks to MTN’s vast network of mobile towers. We are especially pleased to see strong growth in rural areas, which have traditionally struggled to gain access to the digital world,” says Nicholas.
A study by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) determined that connectivity gaps in rural areas are particularly pronounced in least developed countries (LDCs), where 17% of the rural population live in areas with no mobile coverage at all, and 19% of the rural population is covered by only a 2G network.
“MTN plans to change that as we continue to roll out solutions and services to close the digital access gap and the recent results of our Airfibre rollout shows that we are doing that,” says Nicholas.
Users can easily check availability of Airfibre in their areas at here.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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