JSE-listed Telkom on Wednesday said technical trials of its high-speed fixed-line Internet offering had revealed speeds of over 100 Mb/s, while its mobile broadband product offered speeds at over 200 Mb/s.

The telecommunications group, which was demonstrating its latest innovations at the My Broadband Conference, in Midrand, said that these were the highest speeds yet achieved in South Africa on the gigabit passive optical network-based line and the long term evolution- (LTE-) advanced carrier aggregation air interface.

“These types of speeds would offer superb quality for most customers. By aggregating two carriers (40 MHz) of its 60 MHz spectrum, Telkom is able to offer over 200 Mb/s on the air interface per sector,” Telkom COO Dr Brian Armstrong said.

Telkom was testing different types of content, including streaming, pay-per-view and trickle-feed from various content providers such as iTunes on AppleTV, Boxxee, YouTube, DStv Boxoffice online, DStv Catchup and Samsung SmartHub, the group explained in a statement.

“Our introduction of high-speed access is a roadmap designed to leapfrog South Africa to bandwidth abundance, together with high-quality Internet,” he added.

Telkom’s LTE technology offered double the speed of third-generation technology, with download speeds of 20 Mb/s to 50 Mb/s – with top speeds recorded at 90 Mb/s – and upload speeds of between 5 Mb/s and 10 Mb/s – with top speeds of 25 Mb/s.

Armstrong noted that the company had a “unique” amount of spectrum, allowing for a seamless LTE experience, as opposed to refarmed spectrum.

“Telkom’s LTE network performs particularly well because it was purpose-built on the 2300 MHz spectrum on an all-Internet protocol network,” he said.

Telkom had assigned its second-generation technology to provide basic access broadband through feature phones, with third-generation applications deployed to smartphones and LTE dedicated to high-speed and quality mobile broadband services. Fixed broadband provided reliable high-bandwidth services.