Are you ready for 4G, certain parts of Windhoek?!

Namibia’s MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Company) rolled out Africa’s second 4G LTE network in capital Windhoek today, bringing distinctive features such as better coverage, faster speed, less latency and better network quality to the relatively slim number of LTE-capable users in part of the city. The aim is to have the rest of Windhoek covered by July, and almost half the country within a year.

Meanwhile, across the border, South Africa’s mobile data providers are dragging their heels on rolling out 4G, with the main obstacles, they say, being the relative youth of LTE and LTE-capable devices, and also the availability of spectrum.

The Namibian network hinges on the recent opening of the West African Cable System (WACS) which connects the UK and South Africa with a 5,12 Tb/s line, but most governments and regulators this side of the Equator have yet to allocate and cost spectrum provision for 4G LTE coverage.

Vodacom announced it would be investing in renovating its base stations rather than the longer term goal of installing 4G facilities, and MTN told News 24 that they were preparing for a roll out, but the decision to go live had not been made yet.

Demand for high-speed data provision is high in South Africa, but there are still relatively few 4G capable devices in the market. Apples new iPad is probably the most high profile one, but even that relies on governments and regulators’ spectrum choices. Apple in the UK was recently forced to drop 4G LTE from it’s British marketing because new iPad users could not connect to available LTE networks because the device did not support them at that frequency.

It says 4G, but it might not like 4G, or even pick it up locally.

[Source: News 24, All Africa, Commsmea, ArticlesInbox]