Following a $68 million bid win for a 4G LTE 800MHz license through the NCA in December, Ericsson says it has been selected by MTN Ghana for the deployment of a new LTE network next month.

Ericsson would install its multi-standard radio solution which supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA, and LTE. The solution supports cost-effective deployment, along with capacity and functionality evolution.

In the Sub-Saharan Africa appendix of the Ericsson Mobility Report, the infrastructure vendor had forecast that the WCDMA/HSPA combined with LTE would account for almost 80% of subscriptions in the region by the end of 2021. It also expects data usage to grow 15x from current levels and LTE subscriptions by 28x.

With Ericsson's advanced mixed-mode (2G/3G/LTE) solution, which the Swedish company says would enable operators to migrate their networks to LTE efficiently, the need for world-class data access by MTN Ghana's 16 million subscribers are expected to be met.

MTN Ghana currently has a high score for service delivery going by its rating in all the parameters measured during NCA's latest Quality of Service drive tests earlier this year.

The operator's CTO, Mohammed Rufai, had in February stated that the QoS score "confirms the robustness of our network and the distinct services MTN will offer customers when we fully launch 4G LTE in June 2016."

The launch would make MTN the fourth active 4G LTE player in the country. On top of the list are Surfline Communications and Busy Ghana. Blu Telecoms, in third position, has limited coverage compared with the two. Goldkey Telecom is another licensed operator.

Ctrack for MTN

Relatedly, Novatel Wireless, which provides Internet of Things (IoT) solutions including software-as-a-service (SaaS), has agreed to offer Ctrack telematics solutions and services to MTN's IoT customer base.

As Africa's largest telecoms network operator with 229 million subscribers across the continent, and the Middle East, Ctrack enables MTN's business subscribers to seamlessly integrate fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions using MTN's Pan African IoT SIM cards.

As a result, businesses will benefit from a single rate for IoT activity across the company's footprint in Africa. Companies with transcontinental operations will also be able to easily monitor and track their vehicles across borders.