SA's third cellphone operator, Cell C, has taken cautious steps towards offering high-speed mobile technology to its customers, with the activation of two base stations for trial purposes in Johannesburg.
While the majority of South Africans will not experience long-term evolution (LTE) anytime soon - due to government's and the regulator's dithering around spectrum allocation - Cell C has made a start as its rivals forge ahead with their own new generation networks.
According to Cell C, two of its base stations in Sandton, northern Johannesburg, were switched on last week using the new wireless technology (which has the potential to operate at more than double the speed of any mobile connection currently commercially available in SA).
Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig says, initially, LTE rollout will be limited to a "few sites" in the main metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. "More sites will be switched on in the coming weeks [and] we expect rollout in the targeted areas to be completed early next year."
Like rival operators Vodacom and MTN, Cell C is at this stage re-farming some of its existing spectrum for LTE. "Cell C optimised parts of the spectrum allocated in the 2 100MHz band for this purpose. On some of the sites we will be using 10MHz spectrum and on other sites 5MHz, dependent on spectrum utilisation."
Knott-Craig says, when commercial LTE is initially launched, customers who have an LTE-enabled device and are in an LTE coverage area will experience "very good speeds". He says, however, "the majority of South Africans will not benefit from LTE in the near future. That is why Cell C supports a national wholesale network."
Only a few thousand LTE-enabled devices have been ordered at this stage, he says.
Knott-Craig recently said the current LTE efforts being made by SA's operators were more a marketing ploy - a positioning statement - than anything else.
He said it did not make "great financial sense" to launch an LTE network now, but if one operator starts with LTE, the others must follow or risk being left behind in the consumers' eyes.
SA's largest mobile operator Vodacom is the only one of the four so far to have launched a commercial LTE service. Last month, Vodacom went live with a number of LTE base stations in Johannesburg, followed by a launch in Durban last week.
Second operator MTN and Telkom's mobile arm 8ta are currently trialling LTE - with MTN expected to initiate commercial services in the coming weeks. 8ta's trial, meanwhile, ends in March next year, after which customer feedback will inform Telkom's next steps.
Share