---
title: Huawei and rain claim sub-1GHz breakthrough - Developing Telecoms
description: South Africa mobile network operator rain and technology giant Huawei say they are jointly accelerating the deployment of a sub-1GHz massive MIMO 5G network across South Africa, with plans to deploy a multi-thousand-site scale commercial network.
canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/wireless-networks/20501-huawei-and-rain-claim-sub-1ghz-breakthrough.html
language: en-GB
date: 2026-07-08T14:54:26Z
notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/wireless-networks/20501-huawei-and-rain-claim-sub-1ghz-breakthrough.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
markdown-tokens: 1275
---

> **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/wireless-networks/20501-huawei-and-rain-claim-sub-1ghz-breakthrough.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content.
> **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
> **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above.


South Africa mobile network operator rain and technology giant Huawei say they are jointly accelerating the deployment of a sub-1GHz massive MIMO 5G network across South Africa, with plans to deploy a multi-thousand-site scale commercial network.

Currently, rain has achieved large-scale deployment of sub-1GHz massive MIMO in major cities across South Africa. Commercial results show that the uplink coverage is enhanced by 5 dB and the downlink coverage is enhanced by 3 dB, and the network capacity is increased by up to three times compared with conventional four transmit, four receive (4T4R) equipment.

The deployment is described as the first large-scale commercial implementation of massive MIMO technology in the sub-1 GHz FDD spectrum in South Africa, overcoming one of the industry's most significant technical challenges.

As the partners explain, while massive MIMO has become the foundation of high-capacity 5G networks, extending the technology to low-band FDD spectrum has required years of innovation in antenna design, radio architecture, signal processing and interference management.

Huawei and rain have transformed this innovation into a live network. For the first time, they say, low-band spectrum can deliver the wide-area coverage and deep indoor penetration traditionally associated with lower frequencies, while simultaneously providing the substantial capacity and spectral efficiency gains of massive MIMO.

This breakthrough enables operators to significantly improve user experience, increase network capacity, expand 5G coverage, and make more efficient use of valuable low-band spectrum. More importantly, they suggest, it establishes a new blueprint for the future evolution of 5G networks worldwide.

Fang Xiang, Huawei's Corporate Vice President and President of Wireless Network Solutions, says: "This is more than a network upgrade. It is a global technology milestone. The deployment of sub-1GHz massive MIMO 5G sites demonstrates leading network competitiveness in spectral efficiency, coverage, latency, uplink performance, and energy efficiency. This provides strong support for rain as it looks to strengthen its advanced wireless foundation."

<!-- AI:SCHEMA: Schema.org description of canonical page in JSON-LD format -->
<!-- AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN format=jsonld scope=page -->

```json
{
    "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Article",
            "author": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#vaughan_o_grady_640e701a34"
            },
            "dateModified": "2026-07-08T14:54:26Z",
            "datePublished": "2026-07-08T14:54:26Z",
            "description": "South Africa mobile network operator rain and technology giant Huawei say they are jointly accelerating the deployment of a sub-1GHz massive MIMO 5G network across South Africa, with plans to deploy a multi-thousand-site scale commercial network.",
            "headline": "Huawei and rain claim sub-1GHz breakthrough",
            "image": [
                {
                    "@type": "ImageObject",
                    "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/Places\/South_Africa_Cape_Town_1200x900.jpg",
                    "caption": "",
                    "description": "Huawei and rain claim sub-1GHz breakthrough",
                    "width": 1200,
                    "height": 900
                }
            ],
            "inLanguage": "en-GB",
            "mainEntityOfPage": {
                "@type": "WebPage",
                "url": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/telecom-technology\/wireless-networks\/20501-huawei-and-rain-claim-sub-1ghz-breakthrough.html"
            },
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultPublisher"
            },
            "url": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/telecom-technology\/wireless-networks\/20501-huawei-and-rain-claim-sub-1ghz-breakthrough.html"
        },
        {
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "Vaughan O'Grady",
            "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#vaughan_o_grady_640e701a34"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultPublisher",
            "@type": "Organization",
            "url": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/",
            "logo": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "name": "Developing Telecoms"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultLogo",
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png",
            "width": "440",
            "height": "122"
        }
    ]
}
```

<!-- AI:SCHEMA:END -->