Huawei and Namibia-based operator MTC have announced the commercial use of LTE-Advanced(LTE-A) network in Namibia, and inaugurated the first 4.5G trial in Africa.

According to a company statement the speed test showed the peak download speed of LTE-A network reached 300Mbps, and 4.5G network reached 1Gbps.

"MTC and Huawei have been working together as strategic partners for a very long time, providing the best telecom network services to consumers in Namibia," said Miguel Gereldes, CEO of MTC."Our cooperation in the innovative LTE-A and 4.5G technologies is a milestone of our strategic relation, and it also marks the beginning of Gigabit society where consumers could enjoy faster and better mobile broadband experience, and the mobile broadband network with high speed, low latency, and big capacity enables the development of virtual reality, 4K high resolution video, internet of things, and many others new business opportunities. The Digital economy will be boosted by all these new businesses. "

Wallace Yin, Managing Director of Huawei Namibia, described 4.5G as the 'natural evolution' of 4G and necessary for the transition to 5G.

"Huawei came up with the comprehensive concept of 4.5G in 2014, and already became the major player in 4.5G R&D and deployment with 20 commercial and trial 4.5G networks deployed around the world. As a strategic partner，Huawei will continue to work closely with MTC to provide faster and better broadband network to Namibia. As an ICT advisor to many governments around the world, we also look forward to sharing our global expertise and solutions with the government of Namibia, in order to promote ICT development and boost digital economy here. "

Huawei believes 4.5G performs better than 4G in terms of bandwidth, network capacity, and network latency.

The technology will allow for speeds of up to 1 Gbps over mobile and latency of less than 10 milliseconds. 4.5G will better aid the development of Internet of Things, supporting up to 100,000 connections per cell, claims the Chinese ICT firm.

"I am happy that this new technology will complement the Harambee Plan, and I am looking forward to the introduction of the new technology", said President Hage Geingob, following the launch.