Safaricom and Huawei to commence LTE test in Kenya within 2 Months

Kenya’s largest Telecom Operator ‘Safaricom’ will initiate technical trials of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies across its network within the next two months. The roll out of the LTE will be carried out by Chinese company Huawei Technologies.

The two companies inked a three year partnership under which Safaricom selected Huawei Technologies to supply its core network requirements, and to facilitate the rollout itself. The roll out of the 4G network is worth US$141.2 million.

According to Safaricom’s CEO Michael Joseph,the company is going to do a technical LTE trial on the spectrum to see if it suits the Kenyan market and its commercial viability. This is completely a technical trial and not a commercial trial and the company is going to do the trials within our spectrum in the next two months. Safaricom is keen to overhaul its billing system and core network, at the same time is expanding its 3G network coverage across the country. These upgrades are expected to begin within the next six months and will be completed in two phases.