![\"\"](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/LTE-Phonecall.jpg\" "\\"LTE")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe race to LTE<\/h3>\n
2012 has been the year for LTE – Long Term Evolution technology, which has been dubbed the “next generation” of cellular technology across the world.<\/p>\n
While international markets have settled on branding LTE “4G” – the technology isn’t technically at the standard of true 4G (which is 1Gbps speeds, according to the ITU).<\/p>\n
While “4G” LTE has made headway in the USA and in Europe, closer to home – where it’s referred to simply as “LTE” – all of South Africa’s network operators have made leaps and bounds in the LTE space.<\/p>\n
Vodacom launched the first commercial LTE offering in October, with MTN doing the same late November. 8ta and Cell C are both actively trialling their own LTE networks.<\/p>\n
While the big LTE news came to the fore in the latter months of 2012 – news of trials, speeds, spectrum and regulatory hassles have consistantly made headlines throughout the year.<\/p>\n
>> MTN LTE launches in SA<\/a><\/strong> We’ve all heard about the high-profile Apple vs Samsung patent battle – but patent litigation has been the trend of the year in big tech business in 2012. Apple, Google,Microsoft, RIM, HTC, Oracle, you name it – everyone in big tech is fighting everyone else over patents.<\/p>\n Patent litigation has become a big goldmine for companies looking to not only reap the wards of court-ordered cash payments, but also from the added plus of stifling the competition with product bans and set-backs.<\/p>\n The only people happier than the companies about the patent wars are the lawyers fighting the battles.<\/p>\n >> Apple and Samsung: A defining rivalry<\/a><\/strong> 2012 was the year that money went mobile.<\/p>\n While FNB led the way in 2011 with the launch of its banking app for smartphones, 2012 played host to the launch of a wealth of financial mobile solutions for people to access, manage, lend and transact with their existing or new mobile accounts.<\/p>\n Mxit Money, MTN Mobile Money, Standard Bank’s App, Nedbank’s App suite, MoneySmart, 22seven, My Financial Life, Wonga and RainFin – it was all about the mobile money.<\/p>\n >> MTN launches low-cost banking solution<\/a><\/strong> In 2012 big tech companies were all about pushing their ecosystems – futher reigning in customers and users onto one cohesive platform.<\/p>\n It’s become less about what device you use, and more about which ecosystem you choose – whether it’s Apple iOS, Google’s Android or Microsoft’s recently-launched Windows 8.<\/p>\n The iPhone 5, the iPad 3 and 4 (as well as revamped Macs, iMacs and iPods to boot)<\/p>\n Don’t discount Amazon and RIM, either, with the latter looking to revitalize its struggling BlackBerry platform with a new range of BlackBerry 10 devices in the new year.<\/p>\n >> Android dominates on smartphones<\/a><\/strong> Convergence is one of those buzzwords which have persisted in the industry for a number of years – but 2012 saw the move to seamlessly integrate a number of IT and telecoms services kick up a notch.<\/p>\n With data, voice and video services all being handled through one channel hosted by any given network operator, consumers got a taste for the benefits of converged networks in 2012.<\/p>\n Telkom, MTN, Vodacom\u00a0 and Cell C all came to the party with deals and offerings throughout the year – especially on the data front – selling their wares to draw in customers, effectively competing with fixed-line ISPs.<\/p>\n >> Telkom cock-a-hoop over convergence<\/a><\/strong> BusinessTech looks at 5 trends in tech this year which have turned up around every corner in the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4861,2998,4863,26,525,1697,4862,4440],"class_list":["post-28329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-buzzwords","tag-convergence","tag-ecosystems","tag-headline","tag-lte","tag-mobile-money","tag-patent-lawsuits","tag-trends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28329","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28329"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29080,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28329\/revisions\/29080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n>> First Cell C LTE sites go live<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Neotel trials 70 Mbps LTE<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> LTE and 4G marketing battle in SA<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> UK\u2019s first \u201c4G\u201d service to cost R499<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>
\n>> Vodacom launches LTE in SA<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> 8ta free LTE trial announced<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nPatents vs patents<\/h3>\n
\n >> Google vs Microsoft trial wraps up<\/a><\/strong>
\n >> Nokia wins BlackBerry patent dispute<\/a><\/strong>
\n >> Ericsson sues Samsung over patents<\/a><\/strong>
\n >> Apple vs Google patent case chucked out<\/a><\/strong>
\n >> Kodak loses patent appeal against Apple, RIM<\/a><\/strong>
\n >> Facebook counters Yahoo on patents<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/h3>\nMoney goes mobile<\/h3>\n
\n>> Social lending to hit SA banking<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Wonga.com launches on mobile<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> We will \u201cleapfrog the competition\u201d through apps highway: Nedbank<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Nedbank My Financial Life now live<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> MoneySmart does what it says on the tin<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Standard Bank and Mxit launch mobile money service<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Standard Bank quietly launches mobile banking app<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> No Absa app this year<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/h3>\nBuilding ecosystems<\/h3>\n
\n>> BlackBerry 10 devices pegged for January 2013<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> iPad Mini arrives<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Apple iPhone 5 gets the thumbs up<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Microsoft, HTC partner on Windows Phone 8 devices<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Windows 8 sells faster than Windows 7<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Amazon: Kindle Fire is our best-selling product<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/h3>\nConvergence<\/h3>\n
\n>> Opinion: Convergence trends in SA<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Cell C launches aggressively-priced data promotions<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Mobile data growth and voice revenue<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> BlackBerry data quandary for Vodacom<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Vodacom targets financial services as 4th revenue cycle<\/a><\/strong>
\n>> Vodacom aims for \u201cAmazon-like\u201d online experience<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"