MTN has announced the launch of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) pilot in five clusters around Gauteng.

The LTE rollout and pilot test, which MTN is undertaking in partnership with Huawei and Ericsson, will see selected MTN customers using the network, which boasts speeds of up to 70Mbps. The network will be used for data services only, with no voice over LTE services commercially available yet.

The Long Term Evolution technology is seen as a step above traditional 3G standards, such as HSPA+. The standard has also been marketed abroad as ''4G', although LTE-Advanced is considered to be the fully-fledged 4G technology.

MTN's pilot network encompasses over 100 LTE sites in five clusters covering parts of Sandton, Fourways, Centurion, around OR Tambo International Airport and in the vicinity of MTN Head Office in Roodeport.
Activation of the 100+ LTE sites will be done in phases and all the sites are expected to be live within the next months.

MTN expects to make this new generation network commercially available throughout the country within the next two to three years once the regulator allocates the required spectrum to enable a national rollout.

"Today's pilot launch will give our customers a glimpse of what the future looks like. Being the first operator in Africa to launch a LTE pilot network of this scale is a reaffirmation of MTN's vision to be the leading telecoms operator in emerging markets and emphasises our technology and innovation leadership in mobile communications," said Kanagaratnam Lambotharan, MTN South Africa Chief Technology Officer.

MTN has invested R18-billion in infrastructure investment and ploughs approximately R4.6-billion into its infrastructure each year. These investments that also encompass undersea and fibre-optic cables are in preparation of the LTE pilot which will serve as the last mile.