Vodacom South Africa yesterday said it has tripled the number of Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled base stations in its network from just under 70, when it launched a month ago to over 200 in Johannesburg.
Cape Town coverage has also been started, Vodacom said, adding that it now has LTE devices on sale at Vodacom World in Midrand and selected Vodacom outlets across Gauteng.
Customers can now buy the Samsung Galaxy S III LTE, Vodafone K5006 and Alcatel One Touch L100V LTE dongle modems on various contracts available with the mobile services provider.
Zunaid Dinath, Vodacom’s chief officer sales and distribution said: “LTE represents a step change in mobile capabilities. Thanks to faster speeds, we’re able to unlock the true potential of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
“LTE has the ability to deliver stutter-free video and almost instantaneous music and picture downloads; and because it’s mobile, we can deliver this experience whether you’re at your office, on the move, or at home.”
Dinath added: “LTE devices are still in short supply worldwide but we’re confident that we’ll be able to give our customers a broad selection of LTE devices in the near future.”
LTE technology is a new generation of mobile technology with the capability to operate at speeds up to 3 times faster than 3G. At the moment, it is currently only available to Vodacom Contract customers and will be available to Top-up and Prepaid customers in 2013.
The LTE devices will automatically switch to the 3G network when LTE coverage is not available.
