Cell C CEO Jose dos Santos
Photo by: Duane Daws
South Africa’s third-largest mobile operator Cell C has unveiled its latest offering – long-term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) across three major cities on a commercial scale.
The company on Monday launched the next generation broadband technology in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town.
The company was also preparing to roll out LTE-A in KwaZulu-Natal in the third quarter of this year.
“LTE-A is the next major step in the evolution of our LTE network that will deliver customers much faster data speeds and cater for a fast growing demand in data services and content delivery,” CEO Jose Dos Santos said in a statement.
Cell C’s LTE-A footprint overlapped its current LTE footprint, enabling LTE-A-capable devices in LTE areas to access data download speeds of up to 100 Mb/s.
This followed on the operator’s offerings of over-the-top services, like Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as Wi-Fi calling and an affordable alternative to international roaming by making any Wi-Fi hotspot a mini Cell C base station.
The group had also recently launched commercial fibre-to-the-home services in partnership with open-access fibre network operator Vumatel to further its broadband expansion efforts.