MTN has launched a Long Term Evolution (LTE) pilot in five clusters around Gauteng, that it hopes will dramatically change broadband services in the country.

The pilot will boast speeds 70 Mbps with a latency of under 15 ms. This is almost double the current fastest speed available for MTN's commercial services of up to 42 Mbps.

The LTE rollout and pilot test, which MTN is undertaking in partnership with Huawei and Ericsson, will enable selected MTN customers with provisioned dongles to reap the benefits of navigating on an ultra-high speed network that boasts speeds of up to 70 Mbps across over 100 sites.

MTN expects to make this new generation network commercially available throughout the country within the next two to three years.

The pilot network encompasses more than 100 LTE sites in five clusters, covering parts of Sandton, Fourways, Centurion, around OR Tambo International Airport and in the vicinity of MTN Head Office in Roodeport.

Activation of the LTE sites will be done in phases, and all the sites are expected to be live within the upcoming months.

Kanagaratnam Lambotharan, MTN South Africa chief technology officer, explained that full deployment of LTE in the future would enable the company to provide its subscribers with a quality experience that is richer, faster and with significantly higher capacity than is currently available.

“Being the leading operator on a continent where half the population is under the age of 35, MTN has prepared the infrastructure that will cater to the growing data needs of this section of the population,” added Ryan Gould, MTN South Africa general manager: Brand and Communications.  

“Our LTE trials should be seen as a response to this need and an attempt at fostering socio-economic development and bridging the digital divide,” he concluded.