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SA's LTE-A mainstream adoption still far off

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 15 Aug 2016
The quality of LTE-Advanced services is not yet sufficiently consistent or reliable in SA.
The quality of LTE-Advanced services is not yet sufficiently consistent or reliable in SA.

Although the global adoption of LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) is going mainstream, SA is still lagging.

A report published last week by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) notes that a total of 192 LTE operators (37%) are deploying LTE-A or LTE-A Pro technologies in 84 countries, of which 147 operators (28%) have commercially launched superfast LTE-A or LTE-A Pro wireless broadband services in 69 countries across the globe.

LTE-A is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the LTE standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G system to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of the IMT-Advanced standard, and was standardised by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in March 2011 as 3GPP Release 10.

GSA has classified nine of the commercially launched networks as being LTE-A Pro. LTE-A Pro, or 4.5G, is the next wireless upgrade beyond LTE or 4G which is faster, provides better user experience and is highly efficient in spectrum use.

"LTE-Advanced is mainstream," says Alan Hadden, VP of research at GSA. "Over 100 LTE-Advanced networks today are compatible with Category 6 (151-300Mbps downlink) smartphones and other user devices. The number of Category 9 capable networks (301-450Mbps) is significant and expanding. Category 11 systems (up to 600Mbps) are commercially launched, leading the way to Gigabit service being introduced by year-end."

Targeting affluence

In SA, most of the mobile operators have deployed LTE-A. Telkom was the first telco to launch LTE-A in the country when it deployed the network in Parkview in 2014. It has since expanded to an additional 22 suburbs across SA.

Following its introduction of LTE-A services at Vodacom World in Midrand; Gautrain Station platforms in Sandton, Rosebank and Park; and the Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria in January this year, Vodacom rolled out its LTE-A service to three more sites, two in the Western Cape and one in KwaZulu-Natal, which brought its LTE-A coverage to eight sites in February.

In March, MTN become the latest company to roll out LTE-A broadband services in SA. The company deployed LTE-A "in the affluent suburbs of Camps Bay [Cape Town], Moreleta Park [Pretoria] and at the Gautrain station in Rosebank [Johannesburg]".

In April, Cell C announced the commercial availability of its LTE-A network in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town.

Spectrum allocation

ICT veteran Adrian Schofield says the quality of LTE-A services is not yet sufficiently consistent or reliable in SA.

"Yes, there are pockets of LTE-A availability in urban areas and many users have LTE-A-enabled devices but I think we still have to make some progress to call it mainstream," he says.

To expand LTE-A network coverage in SA, Schofield says the country must allocate the appropriate spectrum to enable true broadband speeds without contending for bandwidth.

"Regardless of the debates around how the spectrum should be allocated, the irresponsible delay in completing digital TV migration to free up the essential spectrum has set South Africa back by as much as a decade in transitioning to broadband wireless access.

"LTE-A is a true 4G environment, allowing real high-speed connections for data transfer, video streaming and live video communications. More data in less time, and at a lower cost," he adds.

Schofield points out the communications infrastructure game is moving very quickly. "No country that hopes to benefit from the enabling factor that broadband adds to the socio-economic growth potential can afford to miss a step in investing in the technology development cycle. 5G is already appearing in the market, yet too many South Africans are denied even a reasonable 3G service."

BMI-TechKnowledge telecoms sector specialist, Tim Parle, says LTE-A promises to deliver true 4G speeds and services.

"When compared to LTE, the user should experience higher data rates, smoother connections to the network and a more consistent user experience when moving from one cell to another. For the operator, they get to implement carrier aggregation, which means they are offering the high-speed data connection over one or more parallel data connections using different frequency bands.

"This is important in South Africa while we wait for more spectrum to be made available. LTE-A should also result in a lower cost-per-bit-delivered for the operator, although the benefits will take a long time to accrue. These come from better co-ordination of cells in a heterogeneous network and improved spectral efficiency," Parle notes.

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