Cape Verde’s National Agency of Communications (Agencia Nacional das Comunicacoes, ANAC) has stated that consumers in the west African archipelago should experience 4G LTE mobile services by the end of the first quarter of 2019, as the government has approved regulations defining the procedures for a public tender for LTEspectrum licences, Agence Ecofin reports. ANAC indicated it will launch the call for tenders imminently, under a schedule to complete the 4G licensing process in January 2019. The regulator noted that the expected launch of 4G is the result of a long process initiated in 2015 via public consultations in the market, whilst the government has also modernised the electronic communications legal framework to support convergent service offers among other new technologies/services.
Previously, ANAC stated in March 2018 that its revised regulatory framework would support commercial launch of 4G by a deadline of June 2019, whilst through 2017/18 Cape Verde has freed up 800MHz ‘digital dividend’ 4G mobile broadband spectrum via the phased switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial TV across the nation’s ten islands, TeleGeography notes. Cape Verde’s two mobile operators, CV Movel and Unitel T+, have both provided 3G services since 2012.