Vodacom 150 Mbps trial LTE network live

Vodacom has today demonstrated its live LTE network at a media event in Midrand, one of the first live LTE networks in the world and the first in Africa.

Unlike many test networks the Vodacom LTE network – which uses Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) gear – is fully integrated with its current 3G/HSDPA network and uses the same spectrum.

The Vodacom trial LTE network has a theoretical downlink speed of 150 Mbps and a theoretical uplink speed of 100 Mbps, but Vodacom CTO Andries Delport pointed out that the actual speed which people experience on their wireless networks will be reliant on factors like the distance from the base station.

The demo LTE dongle, provided by Samsung, proved to be a further bottleneck, only providing maximum downlink speeds of 100 Mbps and a maximum uplink speed of 50 Mbps.

In live testing peak downlink speeds of over 70 Mbps were achieved, while uplink speeds of around 30 Mbps were seen.

Standard international Speedtest.net web based speed tests provided downlink speeds of just over 10 Mbps while uplink speeds came close to 10 Mbps.

Good news for gamers and other Internet users looking for low latency, is that  ping times of around 14 ms were achieved. This is significantly lower than what current HSPA and HSPA+ networks offer.

Full HD Youtube videos streamed without any buffering, even with simultaneous use with speedtests and other downloads.

While Vodacom demonstrated that they are close to ready to launch LTE, it is understood that spectrum is a big restraining factor in rolling out a full LTE network.

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