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LTE on the cards for Cell C now that Gauteng upgrades are complete

In August 2013 Cell C’s then CEO Alan Knott-Craig announced that the mobile network operator would be investing more than R200 million into network infrastructure to combat the poor data and voice quality that had plagued its customers. Just three months later, the initial phase of the upgrade had been completed with 110 new base stations going up in Gauteng and another 98 in the coastal regions with the promise of 350 new sites planned to be active by June 2014.

Today, Cell C announced that its Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure upgrade project had been completed in Gauteng. The upgrade included 442 additional towers that had gone live across the country in 2014, with 256 of those in Gauteng. In addition to that, 158 sites are currently “in the site build process for Gauteng, which are expected to be online in early 2015.”

Cell C also replaced outdated network equipment at 1 215 base stations in Gauteng which should hopefully go a long way to improving the quality  experienced by the network’s users. Along with building more towers and upgrading the existing ones, Cell C has been improving the back haul from the towers to its data center by deploying fibre to the base stations, an important step for the eventual launch of a high speed wireless networks like LTE.

“We have also invested significantly in fibre deployment across the country and connecting fibre to each of our base stations is one of the company’s top priorities in 2015 in line with our LTE strategy,” said Cell C’s CEO, Jose Dos Santos.

While LTE is on Cell C’s radar, it will more than likely have to wait in line like the rest of the operators, except for Telkom Mobile, for the digital dividend to arrive after the terrestrial television migration to have enough spectrum to provide a decent LTE experience.

 

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