Vodacom’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) roll out has reached Cape Town two months after the mobile giant began launching its commercial services in South Africa.
HumanIPO reported last month their coverage had reached Durban and the operator now has more than 500 base stations across the country.
Andries Delport, Chief Technology Officer on LTE at Vodacom, said: “I’m bowled over with what our engineering teams have achieved. They worked incredibly hard to hit the 10 October launch date, but rather than take a breather they actually accelerated the rollout from there.
“On average we’ve lit up another seven LTE sites every single day for the past two months and hit our target of 500 LTE base stations a month early.”
The site receiving coverage in Cape Town include the Central Business District (CBD), Stellenbosch, Atlantic Seaboard, the Waterfront and Century City with more sites planned for early next year.
Delport added: “I’m pleased to say that we’ve also managed to bring LTE to Cape Town several weeks ahead of schedule and in time for the holiday season.”
Vodacom has invested R3.2 billion (US$370 million) in South Africa in the six months up to September.
LTE can operate at much faster speeds than 3G, and ismeant to be a major change in how people experience the internet.
The improved service is only available to Vodacom Contract customers, but is expected to be made available to Top-up and Prepaid customers in 2013. It requires customers to use a 64K or 128K SIM card.
