Namibia has become the second country in Africa to roll out a 4G network after Angola. But other African countries are preparing to launch the next generation mobile services as well.

Long term evolution (LTE) or 4G networks have download speeds of more than five times those of 3G.

Angola has a 4G network in Luanda, while Windhoek in Namibia also has the next-generation mobile services.

But Kenya is also planning to unveil its 4G mobile data services network by 2013 at an estimated cost of $500 million.

Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary at the ministry of information and communication, told Reuters that all Kenyan mobile phone firms had signed up to the new project.

"We need to have it (the network) before the next elections (due in March 2013). That is what we are targeting," he said Thursday.
Safaricom is the only network in Kenya to have fully rolled out a 3G network across the country and is already testing its LTE technology at five sites.

Further north of Kenya, Morocco is also planning to launch a tender later this year to sell 4G licences, a business weekly reported Friday. The report quoted the head of that country’s communications regulator.

"The (telecoms watchog) plans to launch an international tender for this purpose (4G licences) in fall, 2012," Azdine el-Mountassir Billah, head of the Telecommunication Regulatory National Agency (ANRT), was quoted in a report by La Vie Economique.

ANRT plans to award the licences at the start of 2013 and expects they will be operational by the end of that year at the earliest, he added.

Morocco's telecommunications market is dominated by Vivendi's Maroc Telecom, France Telecom's affiliate Meditelecom and Wana, owned by a holding controlled by the Moroccan monarchy and Kuwait's Zain.

Mobile penetration in Morocco is at about 110% of the 33 million population. However, internet subscribers reached only 3.2 million by the end of 2011, according to ANRT data.