It appears that the main reason the African countries are not yet experiencing the goodness of LTE is because of Data prices, that is according to an official from global provider of telecom IT solutions Tecnotree.

Timo Ahomäki, chief technology officer at Tecnotree at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Spain said that LTE network launches in several African countries have been aimed at the top end of the market

 In Uganda, for instance, LTE users can expect to pay data prices equivalent to what a small-medium enterprise (SME) could pay, and that can be anything from 180,000 USH a month, Ahomäki told ITWeb Africa.

“If an operator wants to roll out LTE they can, but it will not attract the mass market,” Ahomäki said.

In the last two years many African nations are trying to avail the LTE network but Ahomäki says network operators in these countries could keep LTE prices stubbornly high this year.

He adds that the rate of LTE launches in Africa could be slower in 2014 with the situation only possibly changing in 2015. Other research organisations; though, have pointed to strong future growth in Africa’s LTE market.

 Earlier this year, ABI Research forecast that 50 percent of Africa’s population is forecast to be covered by LTE networks by the end of 2018.

ABI has also predicted that the number of African LTE cellular subscriptions are multiplying at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 128 percent to surpass 50 million by the end of 2018.