O2 Slovakia prepares to launch its LTE network in Bratislava and Kosice in December, reported Telecompaper.com on Sept 26, 2014. LTE will be available to approximately 165,000 customers by the end of the year, and by the end of 2015, the operator aims to cover 50 percent of the population. Nearly 5 percent of customers already have a device supporting LTE.

Besides the deployment of LTE, O2 will further develop the 3G network and upgrade the 2G network. The operator already upgraded the 3G network this year in 180 locations, added 20 new locations and by April 2015 aims to extend the coverage with an additional 90 locations, said O2 CEO Martin Vlcek. The 3G network of O2 covers 61.1 percent of population, and by April 2015 the 3G coverage should reach 65 percent of the population.

O2, as the first operator in Slovakia, began testing 4G back in August 2010. In 2012 O2 started a pilot operation of the 4G network in selected locations. Following the successful acquisition of spectrum in the auction at the end of 2013, the operator announced plans to cover the two biggest Slovak cities - Bratislava and Kosice. O2 aims to cover 70 percent of the population even before the deadline required in the license, of end-2018.The expected real speed for LTE is 20-25 Mbps download and 10-15 Mbps upload. The theoretical maximum is 73 Mbps.