Vodacom makes South Africa's first native voice call on 5G

Vodacom South Africa has successfully made the country's first native voice call on 5G, also known as Voice over New Radio (VoNR). The call was made on Vodacom's test network – an important prelude to launching the service on the live network.

Vodacom South Africa's Technology Director, Beverly Ngwenya said, "As a company led by our purpose to connect for a better future, this achievement is testament to our commitment to the continuous evolution of our technology capabilities and in pioneering next-generation connectivity solutions to ensure the delivery of fast, reliable, and secure connectivity for our customers. This is especially important in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the widespread use of modern digital applications. It's a proud moment that highlights the strength of our network and the dedication of our teams in shaping the future of mobile communication".

This successful 5G call also marks a major milestone in the evolution of mobile communication in South Africa.

In 2014, Vodacom South Africa was the first operator in the country to launch native Voice over LTE (VoLTE) capability. Prior to the launch of VoLTE, voice services were delivered only via 2G or 3G technologies. With the advent of VoLTE mobile services, users experienced improvements in call setup times and better call quality. 5G native VoNR calls will further build on this with even faster call setup times, superior voice quality with ultra-high-definition audio and reduced background noise. 5G technology will also make it possible to introduce several new tech-driven capabilities and user experiences, adding even greater value for users.

A reliable, cutting-edge network

Vodacom's cutting-edge Single Packet Core (SPC) was used for the VoNR call, which is typically complex to deploy (requiring cloud orchestration, cloud native applications and network upgrades). The successful completion of this VoNR 5G call demonstrates the Vodacom network's capability to provide smooth, uninterrupted, high-quality voice services across multiple access technologies.

"This achievement underscores Vodacom's 5G leadership and marks a significant step in our evolution in offering a fully-fledged 5G ecosystem, enabling future-ready services for our customers", concludes Ngwenya.