{"id":31646,"date":"2013-02-15T10:07:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T08:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=31646"},"modified":"2013-02-15T10:08:54","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T08:08:54","slug":"sa-lte-mobile-growth-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/31646\/sa-lte-mobile-growth-predictions\/","title":{"rendered":"SA LTE mobile growth predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

New data from Cisco<\/a> finds that Long Term Evolution (LTE<\/a>) is expected to support 6% of all mobile connections by 2017.<\/p>\n

Vodacom<\/a>\u00a0became the first operator in South Africa to launch a commercial\u00a0LTE\u00a0service, having switched on its LTE network on 10 October 2012. This was quickly followed by a commercial launch from MTN<\/a>, in November, while Cell C<\/a> and 8ta continue to run trials, as of late last year.<\/p>\n

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017<\/em>, mobile data traffic in South Africa is set to reach 98,347 Terabytes per month in 2017 – the equivalent of 25 million DVDs each month, or 271 million text messages each second.<\/p>\n

In the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Cisco predicts that there will be approximately 849.23 million mobile users in 2017 with the number reaching 54.24 million in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Mobile data traffic, it adds, will account for 15% of South African fixed and mobile data traffic in 2017, up from 11% in 2012. The same proportion of all cellular traffic will be off-loaded to fixed or WiFi Networks, the technology firm says.<\/p>\n

Business Mobile Traffic in South Africa<\/h3>\n