Later this month, 18th December to be precise, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro series will finally become available in South Africa.

But when the handsets land in SA, only one network will support its 5G capabilities – MTN.

Before you begin considering a network switch, MTN will only have this exclusivity into “early 2021”. MTN says that it has undergone rigorous 5G testing with Apple. This is important as Apple has built the iPhone 12’s 5G capabilities from the ground up so testing is vital.

The mobile network operator has also increased the coverage of its 5G network.

“MTN is honoured to be the only mobile network in SA enabled to support 5G on the Apple iPhone 12,” chief technology and information officer at MTN South Africa, Giovanni Chiarelli said in a statement.

“We are also proud to announce the deployment of 5G at selected MTN stores in our 5G-enabled coverage areas,” added Chiarelli.

Where exactly these areas are is unclear and at present, 5G is limited to a few areas in Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. As such, we urge our readers to check MTN’s 5G coverage before succumbing to the hype of 5G.

MTN added that preorders for the iPhone 12 range including the iPhone 12 Pro range will open on 11th December.

Pricing for the iPhone 12 series was announced by iStore last week with the iPhone 12 starting at R18 999 and the iPhone 12 Pro Max stretching up to R32 999.

We now live in wait to see which other networks end up supporting the iPhone 12’s 5G.