Telkom is experiencing congestion on some sections of its fixed-wireless 4G/LTE network in busier metropolitan areas, it said on Wednesday.
It blamed an “exceptional increase” in demand in recent months on its LTE network at 2,3GHz band, but said the problem is still exception rather than the rule “as currently over 80% of our base stations are delivering LTE speeds of 10Mbit/s and higher”.
The 2,3GHz band is not the same band that Telkom is using for its new data-led FreeMe tariff plans. Those utilise spectrum that the company has reallocated in the 1,8GHz band.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of customers making use of our mobile data services and specifically the data services on LTE,” the company said in a statement. It said it has seen a 70% increase in mobile data traffic in the past year.
It said it is making investment in infrastructure to cope with the growing demand.
“The congested areas have all been identified and we are working with our provider, Huawei, to speed up the implementation of additional core capacity, site backhaul and radio capacity,” it said in the statement.
“Improvements in the most congested areas will be felt in the next week and will steadily improve across all congested sites within the next three weeks.”
The company said it apologised for speed reductions during peak times as a result of congestion. “We will update customers in the coming weeks, as the additional infrastructure comes online.” — © 2016 NewsCentral Media
