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MTN pilots high speed network
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PDF mtn.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”320″ />MTN is set to pilot a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Gauteng – a move it says will revolutionise the provisioning of broadband services in SA.
The LTE rollout and pilot test, which MTN is undertaking in partnership with Huawei and Ericsson, will see selected MTN customers with provisioned dongles navigating on an ultra-high speed network that boasts speeds of up to 70Mbps across over 100 sites
MTN’s pilot network encompasses over 100 LTE sites in five clusters covering parts of Sandton, Fourways, and Centurion, around OR Tambo International Airport and in the vicinity of MTN Head Office in Roodepoort. Activation of the 100 LTE sites will be done in phases and all the sites are expected to be live within the next few months.
The company says it expects to make this new generation network commercially available throughout the country within the next two to three years once the regulator allocates the required spectrum to enable a national rollout.
Kanagaratnam Lambotharan, MTN SA Chief Technology Officer said the network will open the window to future.
“Today’s pilot launch will give our customers a glimpse of what the future looks like. Being the first operator in Africa to launch a LTE pilot network of this scale is a reaffirmation of MTN’s vision to be the leading telecoms operator in emerging markets and emphasises our technology and innovation leadership in mobile communications,” he said.
He added the technical teams and partners have been working at full throttle to ensure the company has the technology on the ground that will take customer experience to the next level.
“We are confident that the pilot will give us sufficient time and opportunity to fine tune the technology and deal with whatever teething challenges we might encounter. We hope that with this initiative our subscribers can optimally tap into future services and applications that the LTE ecosystem is expected to provide,” says Kanagaratnam.
The pilot will run on 10Mhz of re-farmed 1800 MHz spectrum and boasts speeds 70Mbps and a latency of under 15ms. The speed is almost twice faster than what is currently available on the market.
Kanagaratnam adds that MTN’s early pilot of a significantly sized LTE network in areas of high traffic will give MTN the ability to gain better knowledge and experience about the deployment of the LTE technology ahead of its competitors.
“Full deployment of LTE in future will allow MTN to maximise its infrastructure investment to provide its subscribers with a quality experience that is richer, faster and with significantly more capacity than that provided currently,” Kanagaratnam explains.
The operator says it has invested R18 billion in infrastructure investment and ploughs approximately R4.6 billion in beefing and upgrading its infrastructure each year. These investments in undersea and fibre optic cables are in preparation of the LTE pilot which will serve as the last mile.
