Uganda may be the first country in East Africa to enjoy Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network services after integrated telecommunications services provider MTN announced it would upgrade its network infrastructure to offer high-speed broadband of up to 100Mbps.
According to MTN, the upgrade will make it possible for Internet users in Uganda to enjoy high quality video streaming and video chatting, aside from fast Internet speeds.
“LTE becomes the new standard determining the level of technology development and offering substantially faster data speed than other technologies,” Mazen Mroué, MTN Uganda CEO, said.
MTN’s announcement follows various technological advancements by the company including rollout of 3G+ and its distribution footprint as well as increasing the fiber network.
Since the rollout of 3G, according to MTN, over 1 million Ugandans have can access Internet from a wide range of devices and at an economical cost. Already, it has spent $80 million in 2012 to expand its infrastructure with the growing customer numbers as well as supporting innovation.
The company has budgeted an extra $70 million for this year, and has since deployed over 2800 kilometers of fiber and 81 base transmission sites bringing the total of such sites owned by the company to 1100 sites.
“The continuous CAPEX investment by MTN is aimed at providing our customers with the best possible user experience across the country. We would like to ensure consistently reliable network quality for all existing customers and also to enable many more new subscribers to enjoy the Mobile Technology,” said MTN Uganda’s chief technical officer Rami Farah.
