Cell C’s LTE network finally goes live

South Africa’s third biggest mobile network Cell C has launched its LTE network this week, the last major local operator to do so, writes GARETH VAN ZYL.

LTE offers faster download speeds than 3G and Cell C is promising speeds of 30Mbps on its 4G network.

At Cell C’s Johannesburg headquarters on Wednesday, the company’s chief executive officer José Dos Santos said his company has spent R2bn on rolling out phase one of its LTE network in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Dos Santos said that Cell C further plans to invest R6bn in 2016 and 2017 in its local LTE network.

Cell C targets having 4 000 LTE sites nationwide by 2017, said Dos Santos.

“We’ve been going commercial live for the last four five days,” Dos Santos said of the company’s LTE network.

Dos Santos explained that customers are already using Cell C’s LTE offering and that thus far 400 000 Cell C customers have been provisioned with LTE this week.

He also said that 38% of Cell C’s customer base of 22 million subscribers have LTE devices.

Cell C, at first, is mainly looking to metropolitan areas with its LTE network expansion.

Cell C is the last major operator to launch LTE in South Africa as both Vodacom and MTN launched their 4G networks in 2012.

Fin24

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http://www.fin24.com/Tech/Mobile/Cell-Cs-LTE-network-finally-goes-live-20150923