WBS plans full scale LTE by mid 2012

Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), the holding company for some of South Africa’s leading communications companies including iBurst and Broadlink, will be rolling out a fully-fledged commercial LTE (Long Term Evolution/4G) Network by mid-2012. LTE is a global standard for wireless communication of high-speed data.

WBS expects that this will provide a huge growth opportunity in the country’s broadband market. This development will afford the company the opportunity to decongest the 3G demands of areas in Gauteng such as Sandton, Randburg, Westcliff etc, by offering high speed mobile services, and should help WBS realize revenues of approximately R3billion (about US $381.7 million) per annum.

High speed broadband

Executive head of Regulatory Affairs at WBS Mlindi Kgamedi, says South Africans in general are hungry for high speed mobile broadband services.

“If such services are offered at good prices and efficiently, we expect the take-up to be quite remarkable,” said Kgamedi.

The number of operators around the world committing to the LTE standard is increasing with the Global Suppliers Association (GSA) reporting that there has been a near 100% increase in the past 8 months. There are now 51 network commitments in 24 countries – an increase of 96% over the past 8 months.

WBS average network speeds are around 150 Mbps and we are already transmitting over 150 Mbps on our satellite network. We have direct ownership and access to both the EASSy and the SAT – 3/

Why LTE?

WBS will be able to offer users a mobile broadband service over a truly 4G network, and we will not have to completely upgrade our entire network infrastructure. This is because we have an evolution path towards 4G in our network allowing us to offer users a whole range of benefits and new facilities so that they can get far more out of their mobile broadband service.

Some of the countries which have deployed LTE in the 1800/1900 MHz and 2600 MHz spectrum similar to what South Africa is intending to do include Hong Kong where China Mobile and CSL Limited have been allocated 2 x 15 MHz blocks of 2600MHz FDD spectrum, and there too, there are plans to deploy LTE by re-using their GSM (900/1800) spectrum.

We are also not ruling out possibilities of spectrum sharing and partnering in the deployment of LTE. World trends show that other operators have also opted for similar rollouts. In further efforts towards expanding its rollout of LTE, mobile broadband services provider Vodafone Hutchison

WBS estimates that approximately 1000 direct and 5000 indirect jobs should be created through this initiative.

Kgamedi says the company envisages that there will be almost 5 million LTE network users in SA in the next 5 years.

“This will accommodate government’s and the regulator’s objectives of ensuring that our rural areas are brought into the information super highway in a manner that will leapfrog current technological development trends to deliver true broadband,” he said.

Kgamedi said the deployment of LTE means that the delivery of rich rural content will be effected at the touch of a button. This in turn will create a platform that will enable global exposure of the content, and in turn increase revenue generation from international markets.

WBS envisage commencing the LTE deployment this October 2011, and will continue until the first phase where 2,500 base stations are to be built, is completed.

WBS expects to launch commercial 4G services in the 1st half of 2012, and we see this as an early Christmas present for the entire South Africa.

Staff Writer