{"id":23950,"date":"2012-10-10T10:07:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T08:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=23950"},"modified":"2012-10-10T13:21:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T11:21:13","slug":"vodacom-launches-lte-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/23950\/vodacom-launches-lte-in-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom launches LTE in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom<\/a> became the first operator in South Africa to launch a commercial LTE<\/a> service, having switched on its LTE network on 10 October 2012.<\/p>\n

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub<\/a> announced at the MyBroadband Conference 2012 that Vodacom\u2019s LTE service had been officially switched on and was open for business.<\/p>\n

Vodacom\u2019s LTE service is initially available in Johannesburg, with other cities to follow in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cVodacom was the first network in SA to test LTE more than two years ago, and since then we\u2019ve been busy upgrading base stations and our fibre-optic transmission network in preparation for today,\u201d said Joosub.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to claim another South African first for Vodacom with the launch of LTE services to the public, and it\u2019s even more pleasing that we\u2019ve done this ahead of many other advanced economies around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vodacom

Vodacom LTE stig<\/p><\/div>\n

LTE represents a major jump in mobile connectivity capabilities. The service has the potential to operate at more than double the speed of any existing mobile connection available commercially in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher speed and lower latency translate into a more stable user experience with stutter-free video and almost instantaneous music and picture downloads,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n

Contract customers with LTE capable devices can activate the service from today by calling 111 or visiting any Vodacom shop.<\/p>\n

LTE capable devices will be on sale in selected Vodacom outlets before the end of October, with priority going to existing Vodacom customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLTE devices are in short supply world-wide, but thanks to Vodafone\u2019s global purchasing power we\u2019re confident that Vodacom will have the best possible selection in stores in the very near future,\u201d said Joosub.<\/p>\n

\"Vodacom

Vodacom LTE demo by Jannie van Zyl<\/p><\/div>\n

Commenting on Vodacom\u2019s intention to be the first choice for anyone looking to connect via this new technology, Joosub said their LTE service will initially be accessible via more than 50 base stations in Johannesburg. A coverage map is available on the Vodacom website.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther announcements will be made with respect to the network roll-out plans in due course,\u201d said Vodacom.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwitching on commercial LTE services is just one step in a much bigger network transformation. With over 9,000 base stations, Vodacom already has by far the most extensive network in South Africa and on average delivers faster connection speeds,\u201d said Joosub<\/p>\n

\u201cOur challenge isn\u2019t keeping ahead of the other operators \u2013 it\u2019s keeping ahead of the tidal wave of data demand. Ninety percent of our 3G base stations are 21.6Mbps enabled, and almost 80% are 43.2Mbps enabled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joosub added that by the end of the year they aim to have 500 sites enabled for LTE with a theoretical speed capability of over 100 Mbps.<\/p>\n

\"Vodacom

Vodacom live LTE speed test<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cell C\u2019s LTE plans<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Internet Solutions\u2019 LTE plans<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN LTE network plans revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LTE spectrum policy drafted<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

LTE spectrum for SA: SNAFU<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom has surprised delegates at the 2012 MyBroadband Conference when it launched its commercial LTE service today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,525,4338,3403,27],"class_list":["post-23950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-headline","tag-lte","tag-mybroadband-conference-2012","tag-shameel-joosub","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23989,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23950\/revisions\/23989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}