Telkom LTE Advanced broadband network tested

Telkom announced on 19 May it had expanded its LTE Advanced (LTE-A) network to 22 new suburbs across South Africa.

Telkom’s LTE-A expansion covers areas in greater Johannesburg, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Tshwane.

MyBroadband’s office is based in one of the new coverage areas, and we purchased the service to test Telkom’s new LTE Advanced network.

While the download speeds were not as high as shown in Telkom’s promotional material – up to 150Mbps – the performance of the service was consistent.

There was also basically no difference between local and international speeds – an indication that enough international bandwidth is provisioned to support the service.

The following screenshots of web-based Ookla speed tests – using MyBroadband and Speedtest.net servers – provides an overview of the performance of Telkom’s LTE-A service during business hours.

Latency

Telkom’s LTE-A service provided good latency, and should satisfy the needs of most Internet users.

International latency was basically the same (and possibly even slightly better) as most ADSL and VDSL services.

Overall experience

The performance of Telkom’s LTE-A service was on par or better than most fixed broadband services.

The price of R1,399 per month for a 100GB service is more expensive than fixed broadband alternatives, though.

However, it a great alternative to ADSL, VDSL, and fibre in areas where fixed broadband is not available.

Telkom’s LTE-A service can also serve as an excellent backup service for businesses with fixed broadband solutions.

More on Telkom LTE-A

Telkom LTE Advanced tested, and it cooks

New Telkom 150Mbps LTE Advanced pricing

Telkom 150Mbps LTE Advanced live in more suburbs