Congestion slows parts of Telkom’s LTE network

Johannesburg - Data services on parts of Telkom’s mobile LTE network are coming under congestion pressure, the company has said.

Telkom said these congestion issues have arisen amid the company having seen an 18.4% rise in mobile voice and subscriptions, and an over 70% increase in mobile data traffic.

“As a result of this exceptional demand increase seen in recent months, we are currently experiencing congestion on some sections of our 2300Mhz LTE network, in some of the busier metro areas,” said Telkom in a statement on Wednesday.

“However, this is the exception as currently over 80% of our base stations are delivering LTE speeds of 10Mbps and higher,” said the company.

Telkom, though, said that it’s moving to fix the congestion problems by bolting on more infrastructure.

“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,” said Telkom.

“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,” said the company.

Telkom further apologised for internet “speed reductions” during peak times on parts of its mobile network.

Meanwhile, the congestion on Telkom’s network comes after the company last week dramatically cut its contract plan prices.

READ: Here's how much Telkom's new mobile contracts cost

On July 25, Telkom started selling six contract plans structured by data use: 1GB (R99), 2GB (R149), 5GB: (R299), 10GB (R399), 20GB (R599) and unlimited data (R999).

These plans offer cheaper data than competitors as Vodacom and MTN charge customers up to R150 for 1GB, according to Research ICT Africa. Telkom operates South Africa’s smallest mobile network.

Telkom recently reported that its mobile prepaid subscribers number 1.9 million while its contract subscribers number almost 800 000.