In what Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig says is more of a marketing ploy than anything else, the mobile operator will soon provide a degree of LTE coverage - initially in two coastal cities.
Cell C says it plans to launch its LTE network in Cape Town and Durban by the end of the year, with a deployment of the high-speed technology on the cards for Johannesburg and Pretoria in the beginning of 2013.
This follows the commercial launch of an LTE network - also in a limited capacity - by SA's first mobile operator, Vodacom, last month, and commitment by MTN and 8ta (both currently trialling the technology) to dispense LTE in the near future.
Knott-Craig says that, while it "does not make any great financial sense" to provide a network now - with LTE Advanced (LTE+, or 4G) 18 months to two years away - none of the operators can afford not to jump on the LTE bandwagon.
"If one of us [the mobile operators] starts, we all have to do it. To me it is more a marketing thing - a positioning statement."
Cell C's network, he says, is progressing well - with almost 4 000 3G base stations across the country completed. "The network that we have rolled out is an IP end-to-end network with HSPA+ and we will be putting out a degree of LTE coverage before Christmas."
He says, as it stands, it is not possible for any of the operators to roll out a national LTE network - hence the limited, strategic deployment of the wireless technology.
"The problem is everyone has to re-farm their own spectrum. This hurts us the least, because we have the least customers, but when the networks are quite full - like the others are - and you take existing spectrum away and put it into LTE, you simply create a degree of congestion."
Knott-Craig says the specific areas the operator is considering for its initial LTE deployments, are those that see high data usage. "Coverage will be dependent on access to fibre and will initially be limited."
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