After recently tripling the number of LTE-enabled base stations from 70 during launch to more than 200, Vodacom has now announced the commercial launch of LTE services in Durban. LTE stand for long term evolution and is a next generation network that boasts the ability to operate at speeds of up to three times faster than 3G technology.  

According to Alberts Breed, Vodacom’s managing executive in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Vodacom is the first operator in South Africa to provide a commercial LTE service within Durban. Durban marks the third town to benefit from LTE after Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Breed explained that Vodacom has rolled out the LTE technology to a small number of sites situated mainly around the Umhlanga area. The firm intends to boost this amount to more than 60 sites across KZN by the end of Q1 2013.

Besides launching this service in Durban, the local mobile operator also revealed that the service activation for Cape Town is expected to follow before the end of this year. Vodacom further managed to double the number of base stations from more than 200 to 400+ in less than a month, and is on track to meet its target of switching on 500 sites by the end of 2012.

For customers wanting to connect to the LTE network, Vodacom stocks a number of LTE devices that are available at selected stores across Gauteng as well as KZN. All these devices will automatically switch to the 3G network when a user moves out of an LTE coverage area.

The LTE service is currently only available to Vodacom Contract customers and will become available to Top-up and Prepaid customers during 2013. This service also requires that customers use a 64K or 128K SIM card.

For more information on the LTE coverage map and list of stores, customers can visit www.vodacom.co.za/lte or phone the operator’s customer care on 111 free from a Vodacom phone or 082 111 from any other phone.