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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
3g not?
- Thread starter DFantom
- Start date
Harley79
Well-Known Member
I doubt that for the following reasons :
1.) EDGE is slower than 3G and I have personally achieved speeds over 300k which EDGE is not capable of
2.) The hardware that is used to connect is infact Vodafone UK hardware, and is a UMTS device which is not EDGE compatible. EDGE is completely different, and requires different device. 3G phones would then also not work, surely?
3.) Vodacom have admitted (I think I saw it on this forum) they are looking at rolling out some EDGE base stations and are currently upgrading base stations to different GPRS classes (I assume to cater for this)
Think about things logically. Someone obviously is trying to "flame" vodacom's success
1.) EDGE is slower than 3G and I have personally achieved speeds over 300k which EDGE is not capable of
2.) The hardware that is used to connect is infact Vodafone UK hardware, and is a UMTS device which is not EDGE compatible. EDGE is completely different, and requires different device. 3G phones would then also not work, surely?
3.) Vodacom have admitted (I think I saw it on this forum) they are looking at rolling out some EDGE base stations and are currently upgrading base stations to different GPRS classes (I assume to cater for this)
Think about things logically. Someone obviously is trying to "flame" vodacom's success
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
DFantom, your source is just plain wrong. Vodacom 3G is UMTS. Not GPRS, EDGE or any non-3G technology.
EDGE is an extension of GSM technologies (2G) and at its upper limits can approach the starting speeds of UMTS.
Those with UMTS technologies, tend to call EDGE 2.5G, those without prefer to sell EDGE as 3G.
Vodacom implements all three technologies, GPRS and EDGE on GSM as well 3G on a separate network with automatic handover between the networks.
EDGE is an extension of GSM technologies (2G) and at its upper limits can approach the starting speeds of UMTS.
Those with UMTS technologies, tend to call EDGE 2.5G, those without prefer to sell EDGE as 3G.
Vodacom implements all three technologies, GPRS and EDGE on GSM as well 3G on a separate network with automatic handover between the networks.
check this thread out :
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=18301
most of your questions concerning GRPS and 3G should be answered here.
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=18301
most of your questions concerning GRPS and 3G should be answered here.
It appears one should never believe rumours until they are proved to be 100% fact - no matter how reliable the source.
ic said:
Well thats why I said rumour to begin with and posted here. I was looking for confirmation and information ^^
So if I understand it right, if the tower I am on only supports EDGE, I get EDGE. If the tower I am on supports UMTS then I get UMTS?vodacom3g said:
Kinda picks the best of available protocols and gives me that?
Crash is having too much fun with a response for this, so i'll skip itHarley79 said:
Surely the technology is backwards compatible, so a 3g system could work on 2g?Harley79 said:
Harley79 said:3.) Vodacom have admitted (I think I saw it on this forum) they are looking at rolling out some EDGE base stations and are currently upgrading base stations to different GPRS classes (I assume to cater for this)[/qupte]
Huh? Wouldn't that mean that they support both EDGE and UMTS on one device, which is what I gathered from Vodacom3g response and from your second response you said it wasn't possible and no it is?
Sorry, I am not a cellphone specialist. In fact cellphones I know very little of, so thats why I ask you experts
Crash
Senior Member
Prove IT!!!!
K... My turn.
Firstly. I am not flaming vodacom in any way. I'd like this to be a constructive discussion.
I admire what Vodacom have done with their 3G offering especially customer service wise.
I have pulled a white paper from Ericssons Website. I not sure what Vodacom use. Could be Siemens or whatever Vodafone like. (Vodacom3G?)
http://www.ericsson.com/products/white_papers_pdf/edge_wp_technical.pdf
Page 5 has the Technical Specs:
User Data 473 kb/s
Theoretical 553,5 kb/s
Lets say that Edge can do up to 400 kb/s roughly.
I've gone through a number of "speed" related posts on this forum. Here's what I found... Some of the TCPIQ test results are messed up (I.e 0) cause the test hasn't been run for a while. So I picked the ones that are valid. I obviously didn't get them all but here goes.
Note: I am working on download speed.
*****
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=18419
Estimated line speed: 367.7 (kilobits/second)
Estimated line speed: 45.1 (kiloBytes/second)
Other two entries are GPRS
*****
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=17194
82.04 KBits/sec
10.26 KBytes/sec
speed test @ myadsl
Your current bandwidth reading is:
337.20kbps
speed test @ telkom adsl
Your line speed is approximately 390.9 Kbps or 47.9 kBytes/sec
download speed
113.93 KBits/sec
14.24 KBytes/sec
Download speed 233.24 KBits/sec
29.16 KBytes/sec
Download speed
123.75 KBits/sec 15.47 KBytes/sec
141.58 KBits/sec 17.70 KBytes/sec
Download speed 224.39 KBits/sec
28.05 KBytes/sec
http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpIQ/LineSpee...ectionStats/?CountryId=196&ConnectionId=11653
User Data 473 kb/s
Theoretical 553,5 kb/s
****
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=17811
Test 1: 270 - 280 Kb/s
Test 2: 155 - 186 Kb/s
Test 3: 80 - 110 Kb/s (using performance.toast.net, tx! JayT)
test 1) average 380 kb/s
test 2) (cant find a big file)
test 3) average 227 kb/s (toast.net)
1.) 82.09 Seconds 40.97Kbytes/sec. = 327kb/s
2.) Telkom Line Speed Test
Your line speed is approximately 193.4 Kbps or 23.7 kBytes/sec
*****
The highest score I could find is 380 kb/s. That didn't beat EDGE's 400 kb/s.
So gents. I'd like to be proven wrong! And then I'll go and hide somewhere.
Show me your UMTS Speeds!
K... My turn.
Firstly. I am not flaming vodacom in any way. I'd like this to be a constructive discussion.
I admire what Vodacom have done with their 3G offering especially customer service wise.
I have pulled a white paper from Ericssons Website. I not sure what Vodacom use. Could be Siemens or whatever Vodafone like. (Vodacom3G?)
http://www.ericsson.com/products/white_papers_pdf/edge_wp_technical.pdf
Page 5 has the Technical Specs:
User Data 473 kb/s
Theoretical 553,5 kb/s
Lets say that Edge can do up to 400 kb/s roughly.
I've gone through a number of "speed" related posts on this forum. Here's what I found... Some of the TCPIQ test results are messed up (I.e 0) cause the test hasn't been run for a while. So I picked the ones that are valid. I obviously didn't get them all but here goes.
Note: I am working on download speed.
*****
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=18419
Estimated line speed: 367.7 (kilobits/second)
Estimated line speed: 45.1 (kiloBytes/second)
Other two entries are GPRS
*****
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=17194
82.04 KBits/sec
10.26 KBytes/sec
speed test @ myadsl
Your current bandwidth reading is:
337.20kbps
speed test @ telkom adsl
Your line speed is approximately 390.9 Kbps or 47.9 kBytes/sec
download speed
113.93 KBits/sec
14.24 KBytes/sec
Download speed 233.24 KBits/sec
29.16 KBytes/sec
Download speed
123.75 KBits/sec 15.47 KBytes/sec
141.58 KBits/sec 17.70 KBytes/sec
Download speed 224.39 KBits/sec
28.05 KBytes/sec
http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpIQ/LineSpee...ectionStats/?CountryId=196&ConnectionId=11653
User Data 473 kb/s
Theoretical 553,5 kb/s
****
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=17811
Test 1: 270 - 280 Kb/s
Test 2: 155 - 186 Kb/s
Test 3: 80 - 110 Kb/s (using performance.toast.net, tx! JayT)
test 1) average 380 kb/s
test 2) (cant find a big file)
test 3) average 227 kb/s (toast.net)
1.) 82.09 Seconds 40.97Kbytes/sec. = 327kb/s
2.) Telkom Line Speed Test
Your line speed is approximately 193.4 Kbps or 23.7 kBytes/sec
*****
The highest score I could find is 380 kb/s. That didn't beat EDGE's 400 kb/s.
So gents. I'd like to be proven wrong! And then I'll go and hide somewhere.
Show me your UMTS Speeds!
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
The current Vodacom 3G implementation provides for a maximum of 384Kb/s downlink speed. Using Siemens kit, by the way.
The fact that some users are seeing 380Kb/s reflects well on achieving near 100% of max. Remember any speed test is the end to end test and will reflect the slowest link in the network. If the radio portion runs at 384Kb/s but another link runs at a max of say 200Kb/s, this will be what a test like tcp/iq will reflect.
You're comparing this with a theoretical, radio only, speed of 400Kb/s on EDGE. It would be more realistic to see what you can practically achieve, once EDGE is rolled out, i.e. what is the end to end throughput?
Quoting theoretical max speeds is also a bit risky. We can easily state that UMTS is spec'd up to around 14Mb/s, but that's not what you'll see for a while. Multi-Mb rates will become a reality this year still in many UMTS networks.
EDGE have pretty much reached the end of it's lifespan while UMTS is only beginning.
So, with clever engineering EDGE may compete with 3G, but only in the very short term.
The fact that some users are seeing 380Kb/s reflects well on achieving near 100% of max. Remember any speed test is the end to end test and will reflect the slowest link in the network. If the radio portion runs at 384Kb/s but another link runs at a max of say 200Kb/s, this will be what a test like tcp/iq will reflect.
You're comparing this with a theoretical, radio only, speed of 400Kb/s on EDGE. It would be more realistic to see what you can practically achieve, once EDGE is rolled out, i.e. what is the end to end throughput?
Quoting theoretical max speeds is also a bit risky. We can easily state that UMTS is spec'd up to around 14Mb/s, but that's not what you'll see for a while. Multi-Mb rates will become a reality this year still in many UMTS networks.
EDGE have pretty much reached the end of it's lifespan while UMTS is only beginning.
So, with clever engineering EDGE may compete with 3G, but only in the very short term.
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
DFantom said:
The GSM (supporting both GPRS and EDGE) and 3G networks are separate networks, with it's own radios, etc. So from a Vodacom perspective we build and maintain two separate installations. Obviously the two radios can be co-hosted on one site, but logically they are separate.
The integration happens on the mobile terminal you are using. If you have a phone (or data card) that supports, say GPRS and 3G, it will hunt for the best possible system, giving preference to the higher speed network. If 3G is available, it will be selected, if only GPRS, it will use that. Switching between them will be transparent to you as the user.
Same thing with EDGE. It's just a 3rd 'protocol'. If your phone supports EDGE in addition to GPRS, it will attempt to use EDGE where ever it's available. Once again, it will be transparent to you.
If the device supports all three systems, same applies. Best one available will be auto selected.
Crash
Senior Member
Cool Beans.
Just one other note, the 3G cards currently supplied by Vodacom do not support EDGE, but you do get GPRS+ if the base station has been upgraded to EDGE. It does seem to me that those in more rural areas do not stand a chance to get 3G for some time, but could even have EDGE already. The increased speed one gets certainly makes it worth while in such cases even if its not as fast as 3G. Thus the availability of a data card that can do EDGE would be a good thing, but I suspect supply will start to appear once MTN gets going. I wonder what CellC is doing?
divv
Senior Member
cell c...
Based on the fact that Cell C still won't even allow you the "priviledge" of paying them R25/Mb (last I heard) UNLESS you are on a contract, I wouldn't count on them doing anything in the next decade....
asmith said:
Based on the fact that Cell C still won't even allow you the "priviledge" of paying them R25/Mb (last I heard) UNLESS you are on a contract, I wouldn't count on them doing anything in the next decade....
Crash said:
Hi Crash
EDGE is capable of 59.2k per time slot USER data rate and 69.2k RADIO data rate. Each base station has 8 time slots, so in theory, you can get up to 473.6Kb/s on EDGE. Thats IN THEORY.
In practice - it depends on two things :
a. The amount of time slots provisioned on the base station (MTN and Vodacom both only provision 4 of the eight, so halve that 473.6Kb/s to 236.8Kb/s)
b. The class of your device. Class 10 devices only support downloads on up to 4 time slots anyway. There are 29 classes in total for handsets. I cant remember which class supports 8 download time slots, but I would image that class of device is not freely available anyway.
In my experience, expect around 120Kb/s on EDGE, dropping to 80Kb/s now and then...
Later -