4G LTE Service in Nigeria seems to be what’s in vogue and we are now moving out of 3G gradually for 4G service, each of the networks have different frequency bands for their 4G LTE and supported device is going to be the matter of contention.
To enjoy super blazing internet speed, it is not as simple as buying a 4G smartphone, inserting your 4G LTE SIM and start surfing with it. Guys, it is much more than that. Lots of people were disappointed when they discovered that their device doesn’t support Glo 4G band 28 (700Mhz) after cat walking into the Glo office to get USIM.
Read through this article to find out everything you need to know about 4G LTE bands, networks and smartphone compatibility.
Right now, 3 major networks have the 4G LTE service in Nigeria and they are MTN, Glo and Etisalat. Other networks in Nigeria with 4G LTE services are Spectranet, ntel, Swift and Smile. We are expecting Airtel to roll out their 4G services soon. Most of the 4G smartphones in Nigeria use band 3, 4, 7, 20 or 28. Check out what band your preferred network has below:
- MTN 4G LTE , supports band 20 (800MHz) and Band 7 (2600MHz)
- Glo 4G LTE, supports band 28 (700MHz)
- Etisalat 4G LTE, supports band 3 (1800MHz)
- NTEL 4G LTE, supports band 8 (900MHz) and Band 3 (1800MHz)
- Spectranet and Swift, supports band 40 (2300mhz)
- Smile, supports band 20 (800mhz)
Those are the numbers folks and according what we heard, the lower frequencies tend to perform better in rural areas with fewer masts and they can travel through walls better with decent coverage while the higher frequencies do the opposite, but they can cope with more users in populated areas connecting at once. These are technical terms that I don’t think you need right now, whatever frequency your preferred network has, you should get some decent upload and download speed. You could download 1GB file under 4-mins, and this is a fact!
To Check Your 4G LTE Network Band Via Mtk Engineering
- Download MTK Engineering Mode from Google Play here
- Install the app
- Tap MTK Settings
- Tap BandMode
- Select your SIM
- You will see a list of band mode, from GSM to LTE,
- If you cannot tick the band 28 check box, then forget about using Glo 4G LTE service.
- If you cannot tick the band 3 check box, then forget about using Etisalat 4G LTE service.
- If you are not able tick band 20 or 7 check box, your phone is not supported for MTN 4G LTE service. If you use Ntel and you can’t tick band 8 or band 3, then your smartphone has no support for Ntel network.