South African fixed wireless and private network operator Comsol is expanding into the home broadband market with a wholesale 5G-Advanced fixed wireless access (FWA) network, targeting nationwide coverage through around 2,000 base stations.
The nearly three-decade-old connectivity company has already started building the network and, within six months, has extended coverage to more than 1 million households in Gauteng. Comsol plans to achieve full Gauteng coverage by March 2027, before expanding into the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and major regional centres during 2027 and 2028.
The strategy positions Comsol as a wholesale 5G infrastructure provider for internet service providers, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and other partners seeking to enter or expand in South Africa’s home broadband market without building their own mobile infrastructure.
New Investors Back Comsol’s 5G-Advanced Expansion
Comsol’s expansion is supported by a new shareholder structure involving Platform Investment Partners and Wimsey Capital.
Platform Investment Partners brings extensive digital infrastructure experience, having made 10 founder-stage fibre investments across four geographies during the past decade. Its previous investments include DFA, Conduct, Vumatel and N99.
The transaction follows the exit of Nedbank Private Equity, part of Nedbank CIB, after a nine-year investment in Comsol.
Existing major shareholder Convergence Partners, together with Solcon Capital, is providing additional growth capital. Comsol founder and CEO Iain Stevenson, through Mactavish Investments, is retaining his stake and investing further capital.
RMB arranged and provided the funding solution supporting the shareholder transaction as well as Comsol’s strategic capital expenditure rollout.
Comsol Plans Around 2,000 5G Base Stations Across South Africa
At the centre of Comsol’s broadband strategy is a planned network of around 2,000 base stations, which the company says will create one of South Africa’s largest standards-based, high-capacity 5G networks.
Unlike consumer-facing mobile operators, Comsol will operate as a wholesale infrastructure provider. Its partners will control customer relationships, branding, pricing, product packaging, billing and support.
Comsol’s API-driven platform is designed to allow partners to introduce branded 5G-Advanced FWA services within weeks. ISPs can also implement or modify broadband products within hours, providing flexibility to respond to changes in customer demand.
The network is designed for bandwidth-intensive residential applications including streaming, video calling and smart-home services.
Fibre Reaches Only 15% of South African Households
Comsol sees a large addressable opportunity because only approximately 15 percent of South African households are connected to fibre.
Fibre deployment has largely concentrated on dense metropolitan markets where subscriber density can justify the cost of trenching and physical network construction. That leaves suburban, regional and other underserved markets where fixed wireless can potentially deliver broadband faster and at lower deployment costs.
Comsol says its 5G-Advanced FWA architecture can provide sufficient capacity for large-scale home broadband services while enabling entire towns to be covered within weeks rather than requiring lengthy fibre construction programmes.
The wholesale model could also allow established ISPs and new broadband providers to expand into locations where building their own physical access infrastructure would be commercially difficult.
South Africa FWA Subscriptions Grew About 39% in 2025
Market trends are strengthening the business case for fixed wireless broadband. According to ICASA data cited by Comsol, South African FWA subscriptions increased by approximately 39 percent year on year in 2025.
The share of 5G within residential FWA is also expected to increase sharply.
BMIT forecasts that 5G could represent as much as 67 percent of residential FWA connections by 2029, almost doubling from 35 percent in 2024.
The forecast indicates that the next five years could bring a significant migration toward higher-capacity 5G-based residential wireless broadband as network coverage expands and equipment costs decline.
2022 C-Band Spectrum Licence Supports 5G Rollout
Comsol received its C-band spectrum licence from ICASA in 2022, providing the spectrum resources and regulatory certainty required to support investment in its standalone 5G network.
The spectrum enables Comsol and its wholesale partners to develop speed-tiered broadband packages with different pricing levels.
Falling costs for 5G chipsets and customer premises equipment (CPE) are also reducing the upfront expense for ISPs and households adopting FWA services.
Comsol says its position as a new wholesale 5G entrant provides another advantage: it can operate a modern standalone network without having to support legacy mobile technologies.
Comsol Runs One of Only Two Live 5G Standalone Cores in South Africa
Comsol’s infrastructure includes one of only two production 5G standalone cores currently live in South Africa.
A standalone 5G core allows the network to deliver capabilities such as ultra-low latency and more precise dedicated-capacity management compared with hybrid networks that combine 4G and 5G infrastructure.
Comsol says its architecture provides roughly double the uplink performance of typical 5G mobile operator networks, an important consideration for home broadband customers increasingly using video conferencing, cloud applications, content uploads and connected devices.
Its implementation of 5G-Advanced is IMT-conformant and uses standards-based technologies intended to increase network capacity while lowering the cost per bit.
Wholesale 5G Model Gives ISPs Control of Customers
Rather than competing directly for residential subscribers, Comsol plans to provide the underlying network capacity to ISPs, MVNOs and other service providers.
Partners retain control over their commercials, packaging, billing, branding and customer engagement, while Comsol owns and operates the end-to-end wireless infrastructure.
This neutral-host approach could enable more broadband brands to compete without each operator having to finance a nationwide radio access network.
Comsol CEO Iain Stevenson said the company views 5G-Advanced for the home as a major growth opportunity, building on its earlier investments in licensed spectrum and private 5G infrastructure.
The company also sees its spectrum holdings and nationwide presence across all South African provinces as a foundation for serving enterprise, private-sector and public-sector customers as the telecom industry evolves from 5G toward 6G.
With more than 1 million Gauteng households already covered after six months of deployment, a target of full Gauteng coverage by March 2027, expansion to additional regions through 2027-2028, and an eventual footprint of around 2,000 base stations, Comsol is positioning wholesale 5G-Advanced FWA as an alternative and complement to fibre in South Africa’s rapidly developing home broadband market.