From MIS Asia

About 50 percent of Africans are expected be covered by Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks by 2018, increasing the region’s access to high speed data, according to a new report.

Market Intelligence firm ABI Research said in its report that LTE base station deployment in the region will swell by 40 percent in the next five years.

In the last two years, LTE networks have been launched in many African countries, including Zambia, South Africa, Angola, Namibia and Nigeria. The report predicts that African LTE subscriptions will increase by 128 percent to surpass 50 million by 2018.

“What makes the subscription growth possible is the increasing affordability of LTE handsets,” said the report.

The coming of LTE networks in Africa coupled with the improving economies in most African countries is expected to trigger high demand for LTE-enabled mobile phones and other devices as costs come down.

In most African countries where LTE networks already exists, Chinese handsets manufacturers ZTE and Huawei Technologies have already partnered with mobile phone operators to provide cheaper LTE enabled handsets.

Written by Michael Malakata | REad more at MIS Asia