Slovak mobile new entrant SWAN will start testing 4G LTE mobile services in ‘early April 2014’, reports TeleGeography quoting Intellinews. SWAN was awarded its 1,800MHz frequencies in January, and is deploying LTE services for launch in the first half of 2014 in line with its licensing terms.

SWAN is using its approximately 300 existing WiMAX base stations which are suitable for quick LTE migration, giving it a head-start on eventual plans to deploy over 1,000 LTE base stations. The company pledged to roll out around ‘25 percent’ of its planned nationwide network per year, and in the meantime is relying on third-party mobile network roaming for national reach.