Mobile carriers worldwide are steadily upgrading to Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks that support high-speed wireless services as an increasing number of consumers use tablet computers and Smartphones to access the internet. Due to Africa's growing mobile phone market, an Ericsson executive believes the African market will have its first LTE (better known as 4G) network as early as 2012. Initially, the network would be unveiled in the larger urban centers where the demand for high speed internet access is constantly growing. “You will see the first networks going in 2012 already to a certain small degree,” said Lars Linden, head of Ericsson in sub-saharan Africa to Reuters. “It will surprise me if the big dragons such as MTN, Vodacom, (Bharti) Airtel and all these big brands, it will surprise me if they do not do anything,” Linden told Reuters. Africa's poverty levels mean that many users remain lower end text and call users. There is however an increasingly tech-savvy market growing among the younger people in Africa, increasing the demand for data availability in the continent. African telecom giants MTN and Vodacom are already running trials in South Africa and Kenya's Safaricom is also testing the technology. BM
