South African fixed wireless operator Comsol is targeting a nationwide network of about 2 000 base stations, as it enters the home broadband market with a wholesale 5G-Advanced fixed wireless access (FWA) offering.
The company, which has historically focused on enterprise connectivity and private networks, has already deployed infrastructure covering more than one million households in Gauteng, after beginning the network build six months ago.
Comsol founder and CEO Iain Stevenson told ITWeb in an interview yesterday that the company is targeting full Gauteng coverage by March 2027, before expanding into the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and major regional centres during 2027 and 2028.
“We are now going through a process where we are deploying a national consumer-facing network and we’ve been deploying the infrastructure for the last six months,” Stevenson said.
The company expects its first consumer services to go live in September through internet service providers (ISPs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and other partners.
Comsol will operate as a wholesale infrastructure provider rather than selling directly to consumers. Its partners will own the customer relationship, including branding, pricing, billing and support.
“It’s a wholesale model so we are not... selling directly to the end-users,” Stevenson said.
The strategy is aimed at expanding broadband access beyond areas where fibre-to-the-home deployments are economically viable.
Comsol says approximately 15% of South African households are currently connected to fibre, leaving a substantial market in suburban, regional and less densely populated areas that could be served using FWA.
Stevenson said the company’s target market includes households currently relying on mobile data, or other fixed wireless services.
“The first 15% of homes in South Africa connected on fibre. A big part of South Africa is on mobile data, or other mobile fixed services and unconnected, and that's those markets we are going off to,” he said.
Competing with fibre
Comsol believes its 5G-Advanced network can provide a fixed broadband experience comparable with fibre, while being faster and cheaper to deploy.
“It will compete with fibre and you will be able to do everything you can do on fibre,” Stevenson said. “It’s going to be a very similar experience, but it’s not, it is different.”
The company says its network is designed to provide high-capacity broadband for applications including streaming, video calls and smart-home services.
It has built a standalone 5G core, which Comsol says is one of only two production 5G standalone cores currently live in South Africa.
The company also claims its network can provide roughly double the uplink performance of typical 5G mobile operator networks.
“It’s the latest and greatest release of 5G,” Stevenson said.
The network uses C-band spectrum allocated to Comsol by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in 2022.
The company says the spectrum allocation gives it the certainty required to fund the network and enables speed-tiered consumer packages.
New shareholders back expansion
The national rollout follows changes to Comsol’s shareholder structure.
Platform Investment Partners and Wimsey Capital have become new shareholders, while Nedbank Private Equity, part of Nedbank CIB, has exited its investment.
Existing shareholders Convergence Partners and Solcon Capital are providing additional growth capital, while Stevenson, through Mactavish Investments, is retaining his stake and also investing additional capital.
RMB arranged and provided the funding solution supporting the shareholder transaction and Comsol’s strategic capital expenditure programme.
Stevenson said the company has raised capital alongside bank debt through RMB to fund the rollout.
“We’ve raised a large amount of capital alongside bank debt through RMB and multiple billions and we are deploying.”
The investment marks a significant expansion of Comsol’s business from enterprise connectivity into the mass consumer broadband market.
Platform Investment Partners CEO Shaun Clark says the investment was driven by the growth opportunity presented by fixed wireless connectivity.
“We see fixed wireless as an important part of the connectivity market,” he said, describing Comsol as a natural fit with the firm's digital infrastructure portfolio.
Wholesale model
Comsol’s approach is to provide network capacity, while allowing consumer-facing providers to compete on products and customer relationships.
The company says its API-driven architecture will allow partners to launch branded 5G-Advanced FWA products within weeks and modify offerings as market demand changes.
Stevenson said the model would also allow Comsol to participate in the growing MVNO market.
The strategy could put Comsol in competition with established mobile and fixed broadband operators, although the company says it will not compete directly with the consumer-facing partners using its network.
“We’re going to be another operator,” Stevenson said. “So yes, I am competing on the open market with everybody else and I'm not going to compete with my channel.”
National network
Comsol ultimately plans to deploy around 2 000 base stations, which it describes as one of South Africa’s largest standards-based and highest-capacity 5G networks.
The company argues that FWA can also accelerate broadband deployment because infrastructure can be rolled out without the extensive trenching required for fibre.
Its network architecture is designed to allow entire towns to be covered within weeks, according to the company.
Convergence Partners executive chairman and Comsol board chairman Andile Ngcaba says the company’s nationwide spectrum and network footprint position it for opportunities across the enterprise, private and public-sector markets.
“Comsol is well-positioned as the world transitions from 5G to 6G,” he says.
Meanwhile, Comsol expects demand for FWA to continue rising. ICASA data cited by the company shows FWA subscriptions grew by about 39% year-on-year in 2025.
The company also expects 5G to account for as much as 67% of residential FWA connections by 2029, compared with 35% in 2024, based on BMIT forecasts.
Comsol’s consumer rollout comes as South Africa’s broadband market becomes increasingly competitive, with fibre, mobile broadband and FWA providers competing to connect households that remain outside the country's fixed broadband footprint.
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