Telecom Lead Africa: Smile Telecoms announced the extension of its existing partnership with Alcatel-Lucent to roll out LTE network in Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Alcatel-Lucent will provide design, build and operate services for Smile’s LTE networks as part of a 5-year agreement to bring fixed and mobile broadband services to Africa.
Smile was the first mobile services provider to deploy commercial 800 Mhz LTE network in Africa, with installed networks in Tanzania and Uganda.
Smile will be in a position to roll out nationwide coverage of full 800 Mhz LTE services in all three of our markets within 3 years.
The companies will launch full coverage in Dar Es Salaam and Kampala before the end of Q1 2013, with near-national coverage in both markets in 2014.
Services will include ADSL-type connectivity for businesses and homes, as well as full mobile broadband, at speeds up to 20Mbs.
Smile will provide both wholesale and retail services in all of our markets.
“We believe that the long-term social and economic impact of mobile broadband in Africa has only begun to emerge, and will continue to transform our Continent. We expect particularly strong demand growth for data services – most of it driven by mobile broadband,” said Daniel Jaeger, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent activities in Africa.
Recently, Telesis Tanzania selected Alcatel-Lucent to offer affordable 4G LTE services. Telesis operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator (MVNA), supporting services for a number of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) which serve their customers using Telesis’ infrastructure.
