On Friday, Liquid Telecom South Africa announced their plan to spend US$180 million into building a nationwide 4G/LTE network across South Africa. The company will then offer wholesale roaming services to other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country from as early as next year.
The said Liquid Telecom network will be build using the company’s 1.8GHz band. The company’s main target market is mobile operators and ISPs in the country. The allocation of the bandwidth to clients will reportedly be on an open-access basis.
Reshaad Sha, the CEO of Liquid Telecom South Africa says the planned network will be able to “meet the needs of the most demanding users across the country.” So far, the company has not officially communicated just how wide the coverage will be or when it will be opening the network to ISPs in the country.
Little History on Liquid Telecom
The Liquid Telecom Group, currently controlled by the Econet Group, traces its roots in Zimbabwe. Where a rich billionaire Strive Masiyiwa acquired the Neotel telecom in South Africa in 2017. Neotel was then rebranded into the Liquid Telecom South Africa company we know today.
Nic Rudnick, the CEO of the Liquid Telecom Group, said: “Our announcement today caps a busy and successful year which includes our recent announcement of US$180-million investment in Liquid Telecom by CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution. This will enable us to expand our broadband connectivity to some of the most underserved communities across the African continent.
This milestone builds on a remarkable year for Liquid Telecom. I am encouraged that the momentum will continue into 2019 with South African operators having access to wholesale roaming services across our network for the first time.”
