Last year’s launch of mobile network operator Cell C’s 4G network brought about much disappointment when it claims of 4G proved to not be entirely accurate. But now South Africa’s largest cellphone network, Vodacom, has launched the upgrade of its network to a faster network which it has dubbed “SuperMobile”.
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This upgrade will allow users to connect using 43.2MBps instead of the 21Mbps currently available. This is still shy of the accepted standard of 100MBps for a 4G network. However, Vodacom’s rivals — MTN and Cell C, are still offering network speeds of 21Mbps placing Vodacom at the top of the connectivity leaderboard.
More than 1 000 base stations in metropolitan areas across the country have been enabled with this new SuperMobile technology, and this will increase to 2 000 base stations during May.
The mobile operator states that beyond the attraction of doubling the speeds of internet connections it will increase the capacity of each upgraded base station by 20%. What this means for Vodacom subscribers is that the chance of calls being dropped are lowered.
Vodacom Chief Technology Officer Andries Delport explains that, “the primary reason for investing in this new double-speed technology was to improve the customer experience…The fact that individual connection speeds can be twice as fast is a nice side-effect but not the main goal.”
For customers who want to experience the faster network, all they need is the new compatible modem available at Vodacom outlets.
South Africa has been identified as one of the 86 countries that have an average internet connection speed of less than 1MBps, and an average mobile connection speed of 495 Kbps according to Akamai’s 3rd quarter “State of The Internet” report. Faster internet connection means good news for South Africa’s budding tech scene.
