Cell C has confirmed it will wait for clarification from the South African government regarding its broadband plans before pressing ahead with its commercial Long Term Evolution (LTE) project, as reported by HumanIPO last month.
In November, HumanIPO reported Cell C had launched two LTE sites in Sandton, Johannesburg, which formed part of the network operator’s first phase of planned countrywide trials.
In addition, Alan Knott-Craig Snr, Chief Executive of Cell C, said at AfricaCom 2012, in Cape Town, last month the South African government should facilitate the foundation of a singular unified telecoms network.
In a public statement yesterday, the network operator said: “Cell C would like to see the formation of a consortium consisting of both private and government entities that will be enabled to roll out a national LTE network, using the spectrum that becomes available when broadcasters switch from analogue to digital.”
Cell C selected a group of heavy data customers yesterday (Wednesday) who are within coverage areas to form part of Cell C’s free trial. A Huawei LTE dongle and 100 gigabytes of data will be supplied to the selected customers for a limited time to test the service.
Before the end of the year, Cell C will have more than 60 sites with more to follow into the new year.
“While coverage is limited for the time being, we are excited to bring high-speeds to our selected trial customers. Once we have feedback on the service from these customers, we will expand the service to other customers,” said Knott-Craig.
