This is how fast Vodacom’s new LTE-U is

Vodacom recently performed its first LTE-U tests in South Africa – stating that it has achieved the fastest LTE-U speeds in the country.

The live tests performed on 16 May in the unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) achieved speeds of over 200Mbps on its local Ookla Speedtest server and around 366Mbps over the air interface.

Nicholas Naidu, head of access network engineering, said they aggregated the spectrum from three carriers – making it the fastest LTE-U demo in Africa.

The tests were performed on a “pre-commercial” device that supports LTE-U. Naidu said to expect commercial devices that support LTE-U new technology sometime in mid-2016.

LTE-U won’t completely replace the current LTE format however, as LTE-U carriers run at higher frequencies than normal LTE bands and the signal doesn’t propagate as well.