By Ibrahim Olukotun
Lagos. December 13, 2012: Mobile phone company, Airtel has announced the successful completion of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial operations in Lagos raising hopes out go-live of the service supporting faster data speeds on mobile networks.
LTE which is widely accepted as true fourth generation (4G) technology is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on advanced network technologies with a central focus of increasing the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with enhanced core network.
Speaking on the success of the Lagos trial, Rajan Swaroop, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Airtel says the company has once again affirmed its leading position in the telecoms industry with introduction of innovative technology to enrich consumer’s experience.
“At Airtel, we pride ourselves as leaders and we are passionate about continuously creating the next innovation to empower telecoms consumers and enrich the lives of our customers across the country. In the coming weeks, we shall take this success story to other parts of the country so that Nigerians will benefit from this innovation when finally unveiled”, he says.
In few weeks from now, other major cities across the country including Abuja and Port Harcourt are expected to experience Airtel’s 4G LTE trial, the mobile phone company says in a statement today.
With the new technology, data users are expected to experience more speed says Airtel noting that that the Lagos trial threw up exciting results as data users could open up simultaneous HD videos on YouTube without buffering.
According to Airtel, download speed, under ideal conditions was 37 Megabits per second (Mbps), while under non-ideal conditions, was 32 Mbps. On the other hand, upload speed was – 10.6 Mbps. Measurement under non-ideal condition was done using the Speed test service.
LTE is a truly global mobile phone standard for advanced mobile broadband. There is use of different frequency bands in different countries, which will mean that only multi-band phones will be able to use LTE in all countries where it is supported.
In February this year, Airtel Nigeria took a significant step to deepen its network capacity and quality when it announced the roll-out of widest 3.75G services across the 36 States in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
With the pan-Nigeria launch of 3.75G services, the widest and largest in the country, the company says it has improved customers’ experience with high speed mobile broadband and internet access, empowering telecoms consumers to watch live TV, download music, make video calls as well as send and receive emails using enabled devices.
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