Why I Won’t Be Using 4G LTE—At Least For Now

4G LTE was introduced to Rwanda a few months ago, but I have decided to stick to 3G simply because I found the latter to be reliable, convenient, affordable and super fast, while the former is inexplicably expensive, unripe and superfluous; and the worst of all, it doesn’t support voice.

I don’t deny the fact that 4G is the king of internet speed in Rwanda at the moment—it runs so fast where it blurs the line between online and offline experience. With 4G, where everything happens in milliseconds, it seems like the page doesn’t load at all—you click and voilà, just like on desktop experience.

But that didn’t lure me into joining this technology. First of all, the 4G we were offered doesn’t support voice, meaning that I won’t be able to make phone calls as I do on 3G. The phone won’t even connect to the internet, despite spending fortunes on the SIM card and internet bundles.

There’s no alternative: you’re forced to purchase some of its expensive accessories (router, modem…)  to be able to start using 4G. That didn’t make me happy and, after weighing all the options, I decided to remain loyal to 3G.

3G has never disappointed me: I do everything (streaming YouTube, downloading at a high speed…) I would on 4G but this time with affordability. Whenever I install a 3G SIM card onto the phone, the device will sniff the internet. I am also able to make calls on 3G (think of calling your friends on MTN, Tigo or Airtel).

All that is impossible with 4G. In other words, I found it to be superfluous but at the same time half-baked.

I am afraid that the once highly-acclaimed 4G LTE is soon going to become redundant if the government doesn’t intervene to regulate, follow up and make it affordable. After all, we shouldn’t forget that a large part of its infrastructure was built on taxpayers’ money.