Vodacom to launch WiMax before the end of the year

lol looks like vodacom wants to compete head to head with telkom in every business area.
 
I seriously doubt that they'd be any cheaper than Telkom's current WiMAX "offering". Vodacom already has the whole of SA covered, why don't they just give people really cheap HSDPA rather than venturing into another expensive technology? I think their simply going to use all these WiMAX towers as a backhaul and pretend to offer some value...
 
I think Vodacom can be the first to offer WiMax to the biggest part of South Africa. Since they already cover 80% to 90% of South Africa in coverage for cellphone, they can just hook the WiMax onto these towers and bobs you uncle...or not?

If this is possible and they do it, I would have a great signal as the Vodacom tower is like right next to my flat!!!
 
What are we going to do tonight, Vodacom?

Same thing we do every night, iBurst, attempt to take over the world.
 
Now if Vodacom does not charge an "air" rental like Telkom this will get interesting.
 
ajax said:
Now if Vodacom does not charge an "air" rental like Telkom this will get interesting.
Click to expand...

Given their's and iBurst's existing products, we will probably see the R0 access, R200/Gig model applied to WiMax.

Since Telkom will allow you to choose your ISP, will Vodacom/iBurst?

And with Neotel and MWeb also entering the frey, things certainly should certainly get interesting.
 
Interesting, it'll have to be cheaper than their HSDPA service which is already pretty cheap for 1/2GB packages relative to Telkom.
 
TiredOfWaiting said:
I seriously doubt that they'd be any cheaper than Telkom's current WiMAX "offering". Vodacom already has the whole of SA covered, why don't they just give people really cheap HSDPA rather than venturing into another expensive technology? I think their simply going to use all these WiMAX towers as a backhaul and pretend to offer some value...
Click to expand...
If you mean use WiMax base-stations as backhaul for something else, then you would be mistaken: WiMax and all other wireless data services need to use fixed lines [e.g. Telkodemonopolies' Digicrap] for backhaul bandwidth. Wireless is only the last mile connectivity solution between a customer and a base-station, wireless is not a solution from the base-station to the core network due to limited spectrum availability - the only time when say microwave would be used from a base-station to another node in the network is when a fixed|leased line is not available at a particular base-station. The reality is that wireless data is actually wired for most of the distance that the data travels - <disclaimer>excluding usage of satellite transmission</disclaimer>...
Gatecrasher said:
Given their's and iBurst's existing products, we will probably see the R0 access, R200/Gig model applied to WiMax.

Since Telkom will allow you to choose your ISP, will Vodacom/iBurst?

And with Neotel and MWeb also entering the frey, things certainly should certainly get interesting.
Click to expand...
What does the term "ISP" really mean in South Africa? - the vast majority of so-called ADSL ISPs are in reality simply resellers, and Vodacom and iBurst also have resellers - Vodacom refers to its associated resellers as "Service Providers", but in the SA context you could argue that they are """ISPs"""...
 
Only time will tell who is going to win this round...or cash
 
ic said:
WiMax and all other wireless data services need to use fixed lines [e.g. Telkodemonopolies' Digicrap] for backhaul bandwidth. Wireless is only the last mile connectivity solution between a customer and a base-station, wireless is not a solution from the base-station to the core network due to limited spectrum availability
Click to expand...
Well all depends if you have cheap access to wired (fiber or copper) connectivity for basestation backhaul. Thats not quite the situation for all in this country. Also technologies like WiMAX raise the bar on backhaul bandwidth required (e.g. > 50Mbps vs. < 15Mbps for say HSDPA) and paying SA wired rates for backhauling each basestation gets stupid quite quickly.

Its far more economical to wirelessly interconnect a cluster of regional basestations and backhaul the entire lot (using fiber) to your core from a single point (actually 2 for redundancy). Obviously the wireless technology used for backhaul is not the same as for access. Generally narrow-beam microwave would be used; 5.8 GHz ISM for cheap & nasty, licensed 7 or 11 GHz to do it in a carrier-grade fashion.
 
Roman4604 said:
...
Its far more economical to wirelessly interconnect a cluster of regional basestations and backhaul the entire lot (using fiber) to your core from a single point (actually 2 for redundancy). Obviously the wireless technology used for backhaul is not the same as for access. Generally narrow-beam microwave would be used; 5.8 GHz ISM for cheap & nasty, licensed 7 or 11 GHz to do it in a carrier-grade fashion.
Click to expand...
Yes, true - Vodacom already does this by clustering their base-stations in an area and then using fixed backhaul links from a 'central' point within the cluster - I didn't want to have to go into too much detail in my previous post, but my point still stands that data transmitted over a so-called wireless broadband network, is likely to travel most of the way over a fixed|leased line.
 
If only Vodacom apply to be the third network operator? If they can then they can deploy their own fibers (and copper) and compete directly with Telkom.
 
parmalat said:
If only Vodacom apply to be the third network operator? If they can then they can deploy their own fibers (and copper) and compete directly with Telkom.
Click to expand...
The concept of a second and third [national fixed line] network operator, is extremely flawed and is probably what made Ivy think that her [mis]managed [telecoms] liberalisation policy was a great idea when in reality it has been a disaster for SA's economy.

What SA needs urgently, is to abandon the extremely flawed concept of 'control the number of competitors that Telkodemonopolies has' - the only way to sort out SA's telecoms is to allow telecoms investment, such that any entity willing to compete with Telkodemonopolies, is allowed to do so - provided that consumers are protected from the likes of SBC et al. The telecoms market is so skewed towards Telkodemonopolies, that it will take years to rectify, which is why the market needs to be fully opened up to competition - instead of being squashed by Ivy's doughnut rings of death.
 
ic said:
the only time when say microwave would be used from a base-station to another node in the network is when a fixed|leased line is not available at a particular base-station. The reality is that wireless data is actually wired for most of the distance that the data travels -

Not so. Both MTN and VC are ditching Telkom provided fibre and leased lines in favour of their own (permanent) wireless backhaul. MTN recently awarded a nationwide contract to Cambridge wirless to provide 480Mbps PtMP backhaul throughout JHB, PTA, BFN, DBN and CT. There is loads of spectrum available in the 10.5 and 26GHz bands. Though WiMAX does not need E1 backhaul (happy with Ethernet), it is foreseeable that they will use wireless backhaul for this as well. Take a look at Telefonica, in Spain that recently signed a contract with RadWin for wireless backhaul for their GSM networks in the UNLICENSED 5.8Ghz band. Vibo, a Taiwanese 3G operator runs their entire 3G network on unlicensed wireless backhaul. You are right in saying that WiMAX as backhaul is a big no-no. Even more so when trying to backhaul WiMAX with WiMAX...
Click to expand...
 
This is quite interesting:

The Cisco
®
RAN Optimization solution offers alternative radio access network (RAN) backhaul transport and data offload
over Metro Ethernet, xDSL, cable, and WiMax technologies, enabling mobile operators to reduce backhaul operating
expenses (OpEx) and increase available cell-site bandwidth.
SUMMARY
Mobile operators need to connect their cell-site base transceiver stations (BTSs)/NodeBs with regional base station controllers/radio network
controllers (BSCs/RNCs) over a reliable connection. The common media used for such connections are E1/T1 time-division multiplexing (TDM)
landline links at 2 Mbps/1.56 Mbps each, which mobile operators either own or, more often, lease from fixed-line service providers. Especially
for long-distance links or for remote areas where landlines may not be readily available, leasing fees can be very high. In addition, technological
advancements demand for new services, and competitive pressure require mobile operators to continuously expand their network and increase
bandwidth capacity at cell sites and thus deploy additional E1/T1 links and increase their operating expenses.
The Cisco Systems
®
solution for RAN optimization offers wireless mobile operators worldwide the possibility to use alternative backhaul
technologies to complement or replace their expensive TDM backhaul network for both Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
Abis and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) Iub links. Using widely available and reliable IP-based transport technologies, the
Cisco RAN Optimization solution enables operators to connect their BTSs and NodeBs using xDSL, Metro Ethernet, cable, or WiMax technologies.
Furthermore, proprietary Cisco optimization algorithms deliver a 30 to 50 percent efficiency gain on RAN links, enabling mobile operators to
reduce the number of links or amount of bandwidth they need to connect RAN nodes. Alternative backhaul and optimization techniques allow
mobile operators to reduce RAN OpEx, while providing for future network expansion and shorter deployment times.
Click to expand...

Link
 
Hannes said:
ic said:
the only time when say microwave would be used from a base-station to another node in the network is when a fixed|leased line is not available at a particular base-station. The reality is that wireless data is actually wired for most of the distance that the data travels -
Click to expand...
Not so. Both MTN and VC are ditching Telkom provided fibre and leased lines in favour of their own (permanent) wireless backhaul. MTN recently awarded a nationwide contract to Cambridge wirless to provide 480Mbps PtMP backhaul throughout JHB, PTA, BFN, DBN and CT. There is loads of spectrum available in the 10.5 and 26GHz bands. Though WiMAX does not need E1 backhaul (happy with Ethernet), it is foreseeable that they will use wireless backhaul for this as well. Take a look at Telefonica, in Spain that recently signed a contract with RadWin for wireless backhaul for their GSM networks in the UNLICENSED 5.8Ghz band. Vibo, a Taiwanese 3G operator runs their entire 3G network on unlicensed wireless backhaul. You are right in saying that WiMAX as backhaul is a big no-no. Even more so when trying to backhaul WiMAX with WiMAX...
Click to expand...
While that is very interesting, you're saying that Vodacom is also going wireless for backhaul like MTN, however Vodacom has publicly stated that Vodacom is building its own fibre backhaul links with no mention of predominantly using wireless for backhaul.

Currently, AFAIK, Vodacom and MTN and CellC still use fixed lines leased from Telkodemonopolies for backhaul bandwidth in SA from their respective base-stations.

MTN also put out a tender a while back to create a national fibre backbone of its own - which doesn't exclude the possibility that you mentioned of MTN going wireless for backhaul.
 
"MTN also put out a tender a while back to create a national fibre backbone of its own - which doesn't exclude the possibility that you mentioned of MTN going wireless for backhaul."

That was a long time ago and since then not a peep. I think they're waiting for Infraco/Neotel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X