While high speed fibre internet connectively remains a distant dream for many Buffalo City Metro residents, it has been revealed by the municipality that they are close to having an area-wide LTE network.
LTE which stands for Long Term Evolution and is a form of wireless broadband, is the next best thing in terms of internet connectivity and BCM is currently in the early stages of rolling out a R7-million programme to connect the city.
According to technology information and advice website Lifewire “LTE can theoretically support downloads at 300 megabits a second”, at which rate a full HD movie, averaging around 4.5GB, could be downloaded in just over two minutes and an MP3 song, at about 5MB in size, almost instantaneously.
Jongikhaya Stuurman, BCM head of ICT explained: “While we have no plan to run fibre to homes, we are building an LTE network that will cover the entire BCM region.”
“We have applied for an Icasa licence and got an approval from Icasa to build microwave links and the LTE network.”
The city will be using its water towers, which have fibre running to them, as high points to which the LTE infrastructure, being provided by Huawei, will be affixed.
“Each tower will have a radius of 10 to 15km. If you fall into this range you will be able to buy a modem and SIM card to connect to this LTE network. It will be uncapped,” said Stuurman, adding that it should be operational during the next financial year.
He said there would be a monthly cost, but that this and the cost of the SIM and modem were not yet certain but aimed to be “significantly lower than other service providers”.
Stuurman said there would be guaranteed download speeds of around 4mbs with a possibility of speeds increasing as the city expanded its network. He also said the speed could increase depending on subscriber numbers and time of day with late night browsing possibly reaching speeds of 15 to 20mbs.
“The completely new LTE equipment will cost plus minus R500000 a tower. The total cost for the initial 14 towers will be plus minus R7-million,” he said
The first 14 towers will be able to service about half the BCM area. — tylerr@dispatch.co.za
BCM kicks off Wi-Fi project
LTE which stands for Long Term Evolution and is a form of wireless broadband, is the next best thing in terms of internet connectivity and BCM is currently in the early stages of rolling out a R7-million programme to connect the city.
According to technology information and advice website Lifewire “LTE can theoretically support downloads at 300 megabits a second”, at which rate a full HD movie, averaging around 4.5GB, could be downloaded in just over two minutes and an MP3 song, at about 5MB in size, almost instantaneously.
Jongikhaya Stuurman, BCM head of ICT explained: “While we have no plan to run fibre to homes, we are building an LTE network that will cover the entire BCM region.”
“We have applied for an Icasa licence and got an approval from Icasa to build microwave links and the LTE network.”
The city will be using its water towers, which have fibre running to them, as high points to which the LTE infrastructure, being provided by Huawei, will be affixed.
“Each tower will have a radius of 10 to 15km. If you fall into this range you will be able to buy a modem and SIM card to connect to this LTE network. It will be uncapped,” said Stuurman, adding that it should be operational during the next financial year.
He said there would be a monthly cost, but that this and the cost of the SIM and modem were not yet certain but aimed to be “significantly lower than other service providers”.
Stuurman said there would be guaranteed download speeds of around 4mbs with a possibility of speeds increasing as the city expanded its network. He also said the speed could increase depending on subscriber numbers and time of day with late night browsing possibly reaching speeds of 15 to 20mbs.
“The completely new LTE equipment will cost plus minus R500000 a tower. The total cost for the initial 14 towers will be plus minus R7-million,” he said
The first 14 towers will be able to service about half the BCM area. — tylerr@dispatch.co.za
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