Telkom 4G launch set for 2014

Telkom will commercially launch Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced services from December 2014, COO Brian Armstrong told attendees of the MyBroadband conference on 30 September 2014.

LTE Advanced (LTE-A) is considered a “4G” technology by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and Armstrong said that Telkom plans to cover 50 suburbs around the country with LTE-A by March 2015.

The announcement comes after Vodacom demonstrated an LTE-A site on its network at its headquarters in Midrand, achieving speeds of just under 270 Megabits per second.

Telkom said that it is currently upgrading its network to offer customers peak speeds of over 200Mbps, with a view to develop its network to ultimately deliver LTE-A peak speeds of 3Gbps.

Telkom currently operates an LTE network on a large chunk of spectrum it has in the 2,300 Megahertz band.

It currently advertises the network as a fixed wireless service and ADSL replacement.

Telkom LTE-A roll-out areas

More LTE Advanced (4G) news

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Whole Vodacom network now 4G ready

Vodacom breaks 200Mbps with 4G