Cell C's 21 Mbps HSPA+ network: What to expect

[rpm]

Cell C's broadband network: What to expect

Cell C officially switched on their 21 Mbps HSPA+ network in PE, with plans to move to 42 Mbps in future

[SUPERMAN89]

Asked whether Cell C was struggling to get the network ready for operation in larger centres like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria, Reddick said it wasn't a struggle, “just a lot more work.”

Durban isit a large city????

According to this map KZN has most of South Africa's population next to G.P

BUT!!!! No worries we going get it before there other 3 "big" cities so who cares

[VioAdmin]

Cape Town is going to be the next "larger one". I have a voodoo-like feeling.

[Carbon_Fibre]

I like the way Cell C are approaching this. Big Ups.

[sunsoffun]

I like the way Cell C are approaching this. Big Ups.

+1 QFT.

[Yuu]

My SP has finally stepped up their game (Stepup4Gs ) ...bad joke :/

Looking forward to getting this when they launch here.

+100

[freeek]

Durban isit a large city????

According to this map KZN has most of South Africa's population next to G.P

BUT!!!! No worries we going get it before there other 3 "big" cities so who cares

No one cares about Durban ... its time to move! Hope Cell C continues to offer good deals and ensures quality along that path.

[CrazYmonkeY159]

This is funny, i am from Port Elizabeth, proud of it. but i really had a good laugh at this one. how many people in PE have HSPA+ modems and/or phones????!?!? that network will have 0% load surely

[surfs-up]

42 Mbps ? woahhh easy does it - just roll out proper coverage to all areas, even if it is only 2 - 8 Mbps, before trying to outdo other ISP's with speed.......but in only a few select areas

[SUPERMAN89]

No one cares about Durban ... its time to move! Hope Cell C continues to offer good deals and ensures quality along that path.

Don't be a hater!lol after all Cell C runs the network from durban and joze

[drukkie]

This is funny, i am from Port Elizabeth, proud of it. but i really had a good laugh at this one. how many people in PE have HSPA+ modems and/or phones????!?!? that network will have 0% load surely

just get the bundle?
most phones nowadays are 3G anyways...no need to go 21Mbps to burn that 5 GB

[Submolecule]

Every third article on MyBB is related to CellC, how much are they paying MyBB???

[fvdbergh]

42 Mbps ? woahhh easy does it - just roll out proper coverage to all areas, even if it is only 2 - 8 Mbps, before trying to outdo other ISP's with speed.......but in only a few select areas

The 42 Mbps will be the maximum capacity per 5 MHz channel, with SA operators typically using two channels per sector (one uplink, one downlink?). This capacity is shared between all users in that sector, roughly equally. So to achieve approximately 8 Mbps per user on a 21 Mbps-rated system, you can only support about two simultaneous users (IP bandwidth is approximately 85% of wireless channel bandwidth, i.e., 17.85 Mbps IP on a 21 Mbps HSDPA channel). So it is not really overly ambitious to aim for 42 Mbps.

What worries me more is the "having provisioned at least 30 Mbps per site" statement in the article. If you assume three sectors per tower (site), and 21 Mbps per sector (shared between all users in that sector, of course), then they already start out with at 2:1 contention ratio just for the backhaul bandwidth on some of the sites. What that tells me is that they either do not expect many users at those sites, or they expect that those users will not be able to connect at the maximum rate supported by HSDPA so that the aggregate bandwidth is less than 21 Mbps per sector.

[nowires]

The 42 Mbps will be the maximum capacity per 5 MHz channel, with SA operators typically using two channels per sector (one uplink, one downlink?). This capacity is shared between all users in that sector, roughly equally. So to achieve approximately 8 Mbps per user on a 21 Mbps-rated system, you can only support about two simultaneous users (IP bandwidth is approximately 85% of wireless channel bandwidth, i.e., 17.85 Mbps IP on a 21 Mbps HSDPA channel). So it is not really overly ambitious to aim for 42 Mbps.

What worries me more is the "having provisioned at least 30 Mbps per site" statement in the article. If you assume three sectors per tower (site), and 21 Mbps per sector (shared between all users in that sector, of course), then they already start out with at 2:1 contention ratio just for the backhaul bandwidth on some of the sites. What that tells me is that they either do not expect many users at those sites, or they expect that those users will not be able to connect at the maximum rate supported by HSDPA so that the aggregate bandwidth is less than 21 Mbps per sector.

Cell C has access to both the 900 Mhz band and the 2100 Mhz band. More capacity where and when needed.

[fvdbergh]

Cell C has access to both the 900 Mhz band and the 2100 Mhz band. More capacity where and when needed.

Good point. But that only doubles your total capacity per sector. They could also start using more channels (5 MHz bands) per sector, but this will only work well if the distribution of users (say in a 30 km radius around the tower) is not uniform (which is probably the case). Even this strategy will probably only provide you with another doubling or quadrupling of capacity (since adjacent sectors will have to use different 5 MHz bands to avoid raising the noise floor in their neighbouring sectors). So that is 21 Mbps * 8 = 168 Mbps per sector, which will give about 20 users an 8 Mbps experience (ignoring IP overheads). I guess that does not sound too bad.

But as soon as the word gets out that you can get 8 Mbps on a Cell C data service in your area (and at a good price!), subscriptions will increase, and performance will degrade. This has been happening all over the world, and here in SA too with other operators.