Business
Alcatel-Lucent plans to roll out 4G LTE in East Africa in 2012
Alcatel-Lucent has signed two contracts to roll out 4G, long term evolution (LTE) in East Africa as the race among African mobile phone operators to capture a growing market gathers speed.
Daniel Jaegar, Vice President for Africa at Alcatel-Lucent, said one of the LTE projects, which is nationally focused, planned to roll out in the second half of 2012.
Jaeger did not reveal which eastern African countries the company planned to roll out the LTE projects.
The relatively new LTE technology, which was first launched in Sweden in 2009 and allows high download speeds for internet on mobility devices, has seen many African operators rushing in to make the first bid.
Africa has one of the fastest growing internet connections via mobility devices, with mobile phone subscriptions having hit nearly 700 million subcriptions in the fourth quarter of 2011.
