MTN consumers can now access LTE
2012-11-30 13:02
Cape Town - MTN SA has gone live with the commercial availability of LTE (Long Term Evolution) in the Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban regions, promising to bring the consumer faster broadband speeds and a better internet experience.
South African consumers will be able to purchase LTE devices from 1 December 2012.
“Having piloted LTE for some time now, we are confident that we have made significant milestones in providing access to this technology and are happy to be able to offer our customers the LTE experience over our world-class MTN network. To date, there are a limited number of devices that offer support for multiple LTE bands including legacy 2G and 3G support,” Kanagaratnam Lambotharan, chief technology officer at MTN SA, said.
With this launch, MTN is offering the LTE Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9” on a MTN 2GB TopUp contract for R799 per month, over 12 months.
"LTE is much faster than HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) and offers more capacity," Lambotharan said.
How it works
For the initial rollout, consumers will have access to LTE in the following areas:
- Pretoria: Menlyn, Centurion, Pretoria East, Hatfield and Midrand.
- Johannesburg: Sandton, Rosebank, Fourways, Roodepoort, Fairlands and O.R. Tambo International Airport.
- Durban: Westville, Pinetown, Kloof, Hillcrest, Tongaat, Queensburgh, Amanzimtoti, King Shaka International Airport and Umhlanga.
MTN’s street level coverage map that shows areas with MTN LTE coverage can be viewed on the company’s website by entering a street name.
This broadband evolution offers broadband speeds of up to 70mbps and consumers can expect speeds of between 7 and 20 Mbps on average, dependent on network conditions.
It is expected that from the first quarter of 2013, consumers can purchase LTE dongles and other mobile devices on contract from selected MTN stores.
