SA's largest cellular operator, Vodacom, says an HSPA+ site went live in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, over the weekend.
The company is also upgrading its network to faster speeds and aims to have 100 high-traffic sites online for the Soccer World Cup.
Last week, rival Cell C said it would roll out what would be SA's fastest cellular network to date. The third mobile operator appointed Chinese telecommunications equipment provider ZTE to deploy HSPA+, in a deal worth about R2.9 billion.
Ready for kick-off
CEO Lars Reichelt claimed Cell C was leading the industry and would be the first mobile operator in SA to deploy HSPA+ technologies, which have download speeds of up to 21Mbps, three times faster than anything currently available.
However, this morning Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said the company had already launched an HSPA+ network, in Midrand, making it the first operator in SA to do so.
Uys says by the time the World Cup rolls around in mid-year, about 100 of Vodacom's sites will have been upgraded to 14.4Mbps, twice the current capability of selected sites.
Faster and faster
At the moment, the company is moving the network to 7.2Mbps, and will then progress to 14.4Mbps, before taking the network to HSPA+, which is 21Mbps. HSPA+ is an evolution of 3G, and has the capability to offer download speeds of up to 42Mbps.
However, in the meantime, only selected high-traffic sites will have access to 14.4Mbps as the transmission backbone also needs to be upgraded, which will take longer, says Uys.
Steven Ambrose, MD of World Wide Worx Strategy, says Vodacom's network has always been capable of higher speeds, but its backhaul facility is not up to the challenge. “The major challenge facing networks is coping with the increase in demand for capacity.”
However, says Ambrose, with increased competition from Cell C, operators have to move faster in upgrading their networks.
He says that, although Vodacom has beaten Cell C to the finish line, SA's third operator will still reap the benefits of a faster network.
Related story:
Cell C brings 4G to SA
Share
