Ericsson and Angola-based operator Unitel said they have successfully demonstrated peak speeds of 450 Mbps on a commercial network based on LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation technology.
The companies said this marks the first time that 450 Mbps speed has been demonstrated on a commercial LTE network in Africa, adding that it confirms the maturity and readiness of the Unitel network to support LTE-A 450 Mbps data speed.
The demonstration utilised 60 MHz of spectrum, with three 20 MHz LTE carriers in band 3 (1800 MHz), band 7 (2600 MHz) and band 1 (2100 MHz) respectively.
"Mobile broadband is opening up a world of opportunities by facilitating industry transformation and bringing inclusion and empowerment to communities. This is especially true in countries across Africa, where the technology enables access to tools, services, expertise, entertainment, and information that was previously out of reach to the majority," said Fredrik Jejdling, head of Ericsson for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Unitel began operations as a GSM operator in Angola in 2001 and now has more than 11 million customers, covering more than 95% of Angola’s population. The company also claims to be one of the first operators to commercially launch a 4G network in Africa.
LTE has certainly been gaining momentum across the African continent: just this week, Vodafone Uganda launched 4G services in Kampala and Entebbe, and said it plans to expand its 4G network to other cities. The mobile services are operated by Afrimax Group, which signed a framework agreement with Vodafone Group in November 2014 to explore further opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Under the terms of the agreement, Afrimax will utilise the Vodafone brand to market its LTE services.
