News coming in suggests that Airtel Nigeria has successfully completed LTE trials in Lagos. Long Term Evolution (LTE), widely accepted as the true 4G, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals.
Download speed, under ideal conditions was 37 Megabits per Second (Mbps), while under non ideal conditions, was 32 Mbps; Upload speed was – 10.6 Mbps.
Many in Nigeria take such news from our mobile networks with a pinch of salt. I have always had a problem with Nigerian mobile networks and their quest to be seen as pioneers of latest telecommunication technologies in the country. Most times, it comes at a big cost to subscribers. The funny thing is, these networks can not even boast of successfully deploying 3G services to all parts of the country. Worst still, locations that boasts of 3G services have very epileptic services at best.
At the moment, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the regulatory body for the telecommunication sector in Nigeria decided to place a ban on all promos and lotteries in the Telecoms industry in a bid to improve the quality of the offerings from these networks by curtailing their excessive drive to increase their customer base. However, the ban appears to have created little impact, as service quality remain poor across networks, five weeks after the ban.
As it is, we can only watch and pray for improved services because as with most things in Nigeria, the customers have very little say.
4 comments
Zsch
After the ban, quality of services nose-dived. It makes no sense to have 3lines and try several times on both before one can connect.
I wouldn’t bet on Airtel’s 3G but…..let’s see
“By the way, these guys are getting test results that’s lower than HSPA and still think it is worthy of news. 100-200Mbps is what you get in the news from networks across Europe, Asia and North America”
*sighs* Tired of complaining of these Telecomm Companies
Harry Echemco
That’s always the major issue with our GSM operators, striving to be the first to the market with a new technology rather than striving to be the best in their service offerings. I doubt they are hoping on targeting devices already on ground when they launch the 4G services, but rather I think they are going to be promoting the service with USB modem devices or WiFi enabled standalone router devices that will serve other devices.
Glo announced the launch of their 4G, I think sometime late last year or early this year but no one seems to have seen 4G signal on their phones let alone enjoying the service ever since then. Maybe this is going to be the same thing.
By the way, these guys are getting test results that’s lower than HSPA+ and still think it is worthy of news. 100-200Mbps is what you get in the news from networks across Europe, Asia and North America.
eye_bee_kay
Yes, we have exceptional instances of babies that start walking without going through the process of crawling first.
It is however unusual, if not abnormal.
Why the rush to embrace the “latest” by AirTel, when the run_of_the_mill 3G is not solidly on ground yet?
Would they not be needlessly stretching their resources even thinner, based on this wrong prioritization?
Would they introduce a different pricing regime for LTE, or what?
And lastly, can the number of LTE_equipped smartphones in Nigeria justify this new investment, when there is a crying need to improve what they already have on ground?
Wale Falade
I tire o, eyebeekay