MTN LTE: how cool is it?

Summary: MTN’s LTE service provides end users with a great real-world performance using re-farmed 1,800MHz spectrum.

MTN officially launched their LTE (Long Term Evolution) trial network in Gauteng in July. LTE is the successor to 3G technologies such as HSPA and HSPA+.

MTN South Africa CTO Kanagaratnam Lambotharan told MyBroadband this week (21 September) that they currently have 65 to 70 live LTE sites on their network, which are based in Fourways (Johannesburg), Centurion, Randburg/Fairlands and parts of the East Rand (including the OR Tambo International airport).

MTN is using re-farmed spectrum in their 1800MHz band (2 x 10MHz) for their LTE network, and is testing their network with Huawei USB modems capable of downlink speeds of 100Mbps and upload speed of 50Mbps.

According to Lambotharan they achieved peak throughputs of 70Mbps using 10MHz wide channels in a 2×2 MIMO configuration.

In live testing MyBroadband did not see speeds at the same level as MTN, but considering that the tests were performed during peak times and with varying distances from the base stations, it is not unexpected.

MyBroadand’s live MTN LTE tests in Johannesburg and Centurion showed typical download speeds between 5Mbps and 20Mbps, with upload speeds of between 4Mbps and 10Mbps.

Lambotharan told MyBroadand that one of the biggest benefits of LTE is the low latency, and here the MTN LTE network did not disappoint.

MyBroadband’s tests showed local latency (off-net to testing servers) of between 30ms and 40ms, and international latency (London) of between 220ms and 250ms.

Huawei LTE (4G) modem

With the great performance of LTE it raises the question of when consumers can expect commercial LTE services in South Africa.

Lambotharan said that while they are ready to start rolling out a commercial LTE network, they are hamstrung by a lack of suitable spectrum.

The MTN SA CTO said that it was surprising how easy it was to switch on LTE on their network (using the same software defined radios and base stations), but that they need more spectrum to roll out a commercial LTE network.

Lambotharan explained that they cannot launch LTE commercially on 1,800MHz (which is used for their LTE trial) as it is not possible to re-farm spectrum across their network in this band.

Lambotharan said that they would ideally like to get 2 x 20Mhz of 2.6GHz spectrum, and possibly lower frequency (800MHz) digital dividend spectrum in future, to roll out a national LTE network.

The only thing holding back LTE in the country is therefore spectrum, and here the cellular operators unfortunately have to wait on ICASA and the DoC to make it happen.