WIRELESS
INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY
Comsol enters wholesale 5G home broadband market
Comsol, a South African fixed wireless connectivity and private network operator with a history spanning nearly three decades, is entering the home broadband market as a wholesale provider of 5G infrastructure. The move is backed by two new shareholders: Platform Investment Partners, which has made 10 founder-stage fibre investments across four geographies over the past decade, and Wimsey Capital, a privately held investment company.
The move gives South African internet service providers, mobile virtual network operators( MVNOs) and other potential partners access to a standalone 5G-Advanced * network purpose-built for fixed wireless access( FWA). Comsol owns and operates the network as an end-to-end wholesale product, while its partners control the customer relationship and go-to-market strategy, including branding, commercials and support. choice through new infrastructure, enhancing the competitive landscape to the benefit of the consumer.
“ Comsol anticipates where the market is heading and builds ahead of demand,” said Comsol Founder and CEO Iain Stevenson.“ This is why we were investing in licensed spectrum years before its strategic value was widely understood and building private 5G before the market had grasped what it would enable. We see 5G-Advanced for the home as a big growth opportunity.
“ ICASA has allocated spectrum to network providers to expand broadband access and increase competition in the market. We believe the way to honour that mandate is to build wholesale infrastructure that extends high-speed broadband to new customer segments and creates a platform for more competition at the well-established service provider layer.”
Comsol started building its network six months ago and already covers more than a million households in Gauteng. The company is targeting full coverage of Gauteng by March 2027. Expansion into the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and major regional centres will follow in 2027 and 2028.
Comsol aims to blanket South Africa with around 2,000 base stations, representing one of the country’ s largest standardsbased and highest-capacity 5G networks. The network creates a new wholesale option for South African service providers, giving them more network capacity
Comsol anticipates where the market is heading and builds ahead of demand.
Comsol’ s wholesale 5G-Advanced offering complements existing fibre networks, expanding consumer choice and the reach of home connectivity. Approximately 15 % of South African households are connected to fibre, largely concentrated in dense metro areas where trenching costs are justified. This leaves a significant market adjacent to suburban markets where 5G FWA can be deployed quickly and at a substantially lower cost. The 5G-Advanced FWA network deployed by Comsol provides high capacity to support home broadband at scale, enabling entire towns to be covered in weeks.
Regulatory and technology developments in recent years have further strengthened the commercial case for 5G-Advanced FWA home connectivity. Comsol received its C-band spectrum licence from ICASA in 2022, providing investors with the certainty to fund the network rollout. The allocated spectrum supports speed-tiered plans with competitive pricing for consumers. Meanwhile, declining 5G chipset and CPE costs have lowered the upfront cost for consumers and ISPs entering the 5G FWA market. As a new entrant into the 5G wholesale market, Comsol also benefits from a modern 5G-Advanced standalone core, unencumbered by legacy technologies.
Comsol Founder and CEO Iain Stevenson
These advantages of 5G FWA are expected to drive significant growth over the next five years. ICASA data shows FWA subscriptions growing by roughly 39 % year on year in 2025. • www. intelligentcio. com
INTELLIGENT CIO AFRICA
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