On May 16, the Lao Ministry of Post and Telecommunications granted a commercial licence to VimpelCom for Beeline to provide a 4G LTE internet service in Laos, which they are now ready to offer to corporate and high-end customers in Vientiane. Costs have yet to be announced for the high speed (up to 5 times faster than 3G) data service.
A handset, tablet or USB modem will need 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz band capability for use with this 4G/LTE service. LTE 1800/2600 MHz devices produced in Hong Kong/Shenzhen are likely to be compatible while those intended for the US market or countries using the 700/2100 MHz bands, are not. South Korea (home of Samsung and LG), the UK and some European operators have access to the 1800 MHz band and possibly 2600.
A quad band LTE USB air card/dongle modem such as the Huawei E392 sells for around $200 (1.6M kips). The Samsung Galaxy S II i9210 LTE phone and i957 8.9” tablet are about $750 (6M kips). Note that the Apple iPad 3 (promoted as 4G) will not work with Beeline LTE.
To avoid compatibility issues, Beeline Lao suggests that potential users wait for their service to be announced officially in the press, with data cost and suitable hardware recommendations.
As seen in the video below, results are impressive as Beeline continues testing their 4G/LTE service, with more than 50Mbps for download and over 10Mbps upload speeds and very low latency (ping speed).
