The first ever LTE video roaming call in Africa has been made in Angola on the Unitel mobile network, according to global provider of wholesale carrier services BICS.

BICS says the call was made “in the presence of HRH Princess Astrid, Princess of Belgium, on an official state visit by the Belgian Economic Trade Mission to Angola.”

The video call is said to have taken place during the official signature ceremony of the trade mission. The call was performed between the Belgian deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Didier Reynders in Luanda and BICS' senior vice president for operations and customer services, Johan Wouters, in Belgium.

The call was made using BICS' LTE signalling platform.

Angola was one of the first countries in Africa to launch an LTE network in 2012 when Movicel unveiled the offering in Luanda, a key crude oil province.

However, Angolan mobile operator Unitel also launched an LTE service in the country in 2012.

And subsequently Unitel has set up a roaming LTE network agreement in conjunction with partner countries already signed-up to the BICS IPX network.

"This agreement with BICS will allow us to offer our customers an entirely new range of quality services when abroad,” says Amilcar Safeca, deputy chief executive officer and chief technical officer at Unitel.

“It will also allow visitors in Angola to roam onto Unitel's network with a very high speed. With its extremely fast data transmission, the technology opens a new dimension with a multitude of communication possibilities," says Safeca.

Clémentine Fournier, regional vice president Africa at BICS, said: "We have a long-standing partnership with Unitel for voice and 2G/3G roaming services. While extending this partnership to our 4G LTE roaming solution is a natural step, we are very excited to see Unitel become the first mobile operator in Africa to realise a 4G roaming session."

Daniel Kurgan, chief executive officer of BICS said: "This landmark partnership marks the next stage of the evolution of the telecom market in Africa and the further realisation of LTE roaming across the globe, brought about by the increasing usage of Internet-enabled mobile or tablet handsets and the high workforce mobility on the continent."