MTN Irancell has expanded its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to cover 50% of the population, following the introduction of 4G connectivity in eight additional cities, namely Uromiyeh, Babol, Tabriz, Tehran, Qom, Karaj, Mashhad and Hamedan. CEO Alireza Ghalambor Dezfouli disclosed that the company will offer 4G services in all provincial centres across the country by the end of the year. Under the terms and conditions of its licence agreement, the operator is required to provide minimum geographical coverage of 10% and population coverage of 5% by year-end.
With regards to MTN’s 3G network, the executive revealed that the company currently has a 3G presence in 75 cities across all 31 provinces; going forward, the cellco is planning to increase the number of locations covered by 170% by March 2015.
As previously noted by CommsUpdate, MTN Irancell launched the country’s first 4G LTE network in the city of Mashhad in November 2014. At launch, 4G services were made available via dongles, with very few LTE-enabled handsets available in Iran. Irancell’s CEO said that 4G users can expect real-world download speeds ranging from 10Mbps to 40Mbps, upload speeds from 1Mbps to 15Mbps, and latency from 50 to 150 milliseconds.