Financial institution First National Bank (FNB) activated its LTE service on its mobile network on Tuesday without much fanfare.<\/p>\n
The move comes after the bank launched its own mobile network, FNB Connect, in June last year. FNB Connect is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that rides on Cell C\u2019s network.<\/p>\n
Since launch, FNB Connect has notched up over 200 000 SIM connections, according to a tweet last month from the bank\u2019s chief executive officer Jacques Celliers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFNB officially switched on LTE capability on all FNB SIMs today (Tuesday),\u201d Shadrack Palmer, chief commercial officer for FNB Connect, told Fin24 via an email confirmation.<\/p>\n
Palmer further told Fin24 that FNB\u2019s LTE network has coverage in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson at Cell C told Fin24 that \u201cLTE is available to all our MVNOs and it is up to them activate and offer to their customers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cell C launched its LTE network last year in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal after it announced that it is spending R2bn on 4G infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Cell C was the last of the major networks to launch an LTE network in South Africa after Vodacom and MTN switched on their 4G capabilities in 2012.<\/p>\n
Mobile operators in South Africa are currently hobbled by spectrum in terms of launching wider LTE networks as the country has missed a number of key digital broadcast migration switch-over deadlines over the years.<\/p>\n
Digital migration is expected to open up more frequencies for mobile networks to offer faster mobile broadband services like LTE.<\/p>\n
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