South Africa, one of the continent’s largest and most advanced telecommunications markets, has a population exceeding 60 million. MTN provides over 97% LTE population coverage, reflecting its commitment to delivering reliable communication services across both urban and remote communities. With growing demand for multi-band and multi-module services, operators face challenges such as tower load, space constraints, and power consumption. The new 5-band RRU addresses these concerns by improving energy efficiency, streamlining deployment, and enabling faster expansion of next-generation connectivity.
Developed with ZTE’s in-house chipset, the 5-band RRU integrates all of MTN South Africa’s low and mid bands (FDD) into a single compact unit. This design reduces the number of radio frequency modules on towers by 50%, lowers equipment weight by 23%, and cuts wind resistance by 18%. These improvements simplify site construction, reduce complexity, and optimize available space.
The solution also incorporates ZTE’s Super-N amplifier architecture, which uses dense arrays of power amplifiers with on-demand activation. By overcoming the efficiency limitations of traditional Doherty architecture, the system achieves a 42.7% reduction in total site power consumption and a 45.8% improvement in energy efficiency (Wh/GB). This innovation supports South Africa’s efforts toward building a green, low-carbon society, while setting new standards for sustainable development in the telecommunications industry.
ZTE and MTN emphasized their shared commitment to advancing Africa’s digital economy while focusing on energy conservation and sustainable growth. With the vision of “protecting nature through technology and driving the future through innovation,” both companies plan to continue collaborating on network solutions that bridge the digital divide, expand smart connectivity, and contribute to social and economic development across the region.
Rami Farah, Chief Technology Officer of MTN South Africa, said: “MTN’s collaboration with ZTE on the world’s first 5-band RRU commercial deployment effectively addresses multiple challenges faced by operators in terms of coverage, capacity, cost, and energy efficiency. It provides a new, replicable, highly integrated site solution for Africa and even the global market, accelerating the evolution of telecommunication networks towards higher efficiency and lower carbon emissions, continuously injecting core momentum into Africa’s digital economy and promoting African telecommunication technologies to a higher level.”
Luca Shen, Chief Executive Officer of ZTE South Africa, said: “ZTE has always regarded product leadership as its core competitiveness and is committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions. The in-depth collaboration with MTN not only achieves mutual benefits and win-win outcomes for both parties but also accelerates the rapid upgrade of South Africa’s telecommunication network, setting a benchmark for digital transformation across the African continent.”
This deployment highlights the potential of advanced technology to balance efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity, paving the way for Africa’s digital transformation.
