8ta trialling LTE in Gauteng
Chief of 8ta, Amith Maharaj, announced today (26 October 2011) at the 2011 MyBroadband Conference held at Vodaworld in Midrand that they have started trialling Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.
Vodacom and MTN both announced trials previously, with MTN issuing LTE modems to certain people in a closed test.
Maharaj said they are rolling out a 50 site trial with 6 sites in Gauteng already built and their “evolved packet core” implemented.
The trial will start in Gauteng, Maharaj said, but they plan to expand their coverage to Durban and Cape Town in the next few months.
Maharaj warned that LTE is still bleeding edge and there are still a lot of questions unanswered, such as the device ecosystem, pricing models, QoS parameters.
“Quite frankly the backhaul is the key,” Maharaj continued. He explained that while they are playing with the technology a lot is happening in the background.
“Making too bold and too early a move could find you with your fingers burnt,” Maharaj said.
Amith Maharaj
Maharaj also went on to list five reasons on “Why LTE?”:
- Increased capacity at low cost.
- No cell breathing so you get a fixed cell footprint.
- Improved customer experience.
- Different commercial models.
- Good substitute for ADSL type services, could possibly offer video on demand.
Building on the point of using LTE as an ADSL replacement, as well as general wireline replacement, Maharaj referred to earlier statements by Telkom’s Steve Lewis who said that Telkom is plagued by copper theft.
Lewis said that Telkom can’t always replace the copper and have to offer customers an alternative means to connect.
LTE is definitely such an alternative, Maharaj said, as it offers the quality of service users have come to expect of ADSL and can offer guaranteed speeds of above 10Mbps.
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