MTN Zambia commits $9.8 Million in its Network Upgrade.

MTN Zambia is planning to commit $9.8 million to boost network capacity to offer high-speed data services on 337 3G and 4G (LTE) network sites across Zambia.

The site-by-site technical roll-out will focus on areas with the highest demand pressure. It will start in the Copperbelt northern regions followed by Lusaka.

MTN says its customers will experience the benefits of the increased capacity immediately the upgrade is done.

However, MTN expects the upgrade to finalize in August.

The improvements will be done by adding more carriers on existing 3G and 4G network sites and upgrading current 3G sites to 4G. It also includes the activation of the 800Mhz 4G spectrum which was released by ZICTA not long ago.

According to MTN, the upgrade is necessary for participation during the COVID-19 crisis as more people are working from home thus, requiring better indoor coverage.

CEO of MTN Zambia, Bart Hofker said, “We have seen a number of effects of the COVID-19 crisis on our network. Network usage during the day has shifted from the traditional peak/off-peak to a more even distribution during the day. We also see higher traffic in residential areas compared to business parks and part of the demand has shifted from voice to data.”

“These changes require a more flexible capacity planning from us. Once [the upgrade] is completed, our customers can enjoy a generally improved network speed with little or no interruptions”, Hofker added.

Recently, MTN Zambia provided free access to online learning platforms for university students to enable them to learn from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MTN Zambia is a member of the MTN Group, a multinational telecommunications company with a footprint in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East. It began its operations in Zambia in the year 2005 after it acquired the then Telecel.