Vodacom first to launch LTE commercially in South Africa

Vodacom’s LTE service has today been officially switched on and is open for business. The service is initially available in Johannesburg, with other cities to follow in the near future.

Vodacom Group CEO, Shameel Joosub said: "Vodacom was the first network in South Africa to test LTE more than two years ago, and since then we’ve been busy upgrading base stations and our fibre-optic transmission network in preparation for today. It’s great to claim another South African first for Vodacom with the launch of LTE services to the public, and it’s even more pleasing that we’ve done this ahead of many other advanced economies around the world."

Contract customers with LTE capable devices can activate the service from today by simply calling 111 or visiting any Vodacom shop. LTE capable devices will be on sale in selected Vodacom outlets before the end of October, with priority going to existing Vodacom customers.

The LTE service will initially be accessible via approximately 70 base stations in Johannesburg.

Joosub said "Switching on commercial LTE services is just one step in a much bigger network transformation. With over 9,000 base stations, Vodacom already has by far the most extensive network in South Africa and on average delivers faster connection speeds. Our challenge isn’t keeping ahead of the other operators – it’s keeping ahead of the tidal wave of data demand. Ninety per cent of our 3G base stations are 21.6 Mbps enabled, and almost 80 per cent are 43.2 Mbps enabled. By the end of the year we aim to have 500 sites enabled for LTE.”