As Kenya still faces teething problems over Analogue to Digital spectrum Switch-over, Ghana is going on ahead to roll out 4G LTE. This was demoed at the recently concluded Accra Summit early October. Kenya has a number of issues ranging from analogue shut-down disagreements from users and stakeholders, lack of the right frequencies to use for 4G LTE roll out to sabotage from the various players.
Ghana on the other hand announced the introduction of 4G networks meaning that the major cities will be doing those much wished for speeds on devices. Devices choice will also change as users will have preference for 4G capable devices to utilise the huge speeds. For a roll-out to be successful, all players like the regulating authority, mobile carriers and device vendors have to be in sync and each play their part to ensure all things fall in place, regulation structure from the regulators, network infrastructure from the carriers and the devices to use the 4G LTE networks from the device vendors.
Huawei demo-ed 4G LTE at the Accra Summit and also introduced 4G capable devices in the market. Tanzania is also planning to introduce 4G LTE via Vodacom after the successful analogue switch off while Kenyan players still engage in a pissing contest even with the better position in technology.South Africa via Vodacom rolled out 4G LTE a while ago. Beyond frequencies, there is also the tussle of way-leave fees in the fiber laying that ensures that data transmission between Base Stations is efficient and not reliant on satellite.