SA's long-term evolution (LTE) pioneer, Vodacom, has beat its own deadlines, having now switched on the new mobile technology in Cape Town.
Vodacom says, in the two months since it launched commercial LTE (commonly known as 4G) services in SA, the number of LTE-enabled base stations has grown from 70 to more than 500 and the rollout has now reached Cape Town.
Vodacom CTO Andries Delport says, on average, the engineering team has lit up another seven LTE sites every day since launch, reaching Vodacom's target of 500 LTE base stations a month early.
Cape Town becomes the latest metropolitan area to get LTE from Vodacom, with Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban preceding it in rollout. LTE sites in Cape Town are located in the CBD, Stellenbosch, Atlantic Seaboard (including Camps Bay), the Waterfront and Century City. Vodacom says more sites are planned for the coastal city early next year.
Network boost
With regards to overall network improvements, Delport says Vodacom has invested R3.2 billion in SA's network in the six months to September.
"One of the big focus areas has been providing high-speed links to our base stations, which we've now completed at more than 5 000 sites to support both LTE and faster 3G connections."
For customers wanting to connect to the LTE network, Vodacom stocks a number of LTE devices which are available at selected stores across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Town. Vodacom says the devices will automatically switch to the 3G network when LTE coverage is not available.
The LTE service is currently available to Vodacom Contract customers and will be available to Top-up and Prepaid customers in 2013. It also requires customers to use a 64K or 128K SIM card.
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