Do you see 4G+ or 4G with Rain?

[dee4dog]

@ Cavedog thanks for the tip. on 1800Mhz i get about 20 up 20 down. On 2600 Mhz i got 5 up 50 down!! Will stick with 2600Mhz for now

 

[bboy]

Also to the guys with B315 sorry for you but you don't get to have B38 2600MHz TDD unless Rain is supplying a diffirent B315 than what Telkom sells.

It is a different model than telkoms, supports 2600, doesnt support 2300

 

[cavedog]

It is a different model than telkoms, supports 2600, doesnt support 2300

Okay cool so atleast people with b315 from Rain can force 2600MHz with the Huawei toolbox

 

[SlowInternet]

Tested it again this morning. The 1800MHz is giving me better speeds.

1800MHz



2600MHz

 

[Ockie]

I am confused. Rain has been selling their network as a all LTE-A network, but from what I have read here it actually aint LTE-A at all?

Carrier aggregation is used in LTE-Advanced in order to increase the bandwidth, and thereby increase the bitrate. Since it is important to keep backward compatibility with R8 and R9 UEs the aggregation is based on R8/R9 carriers. Carrier aggregation can be used for both FDD and TDD, see figure 1 for an example where FDD is used.

http://www.3gpp.org/technologies/keywords-acronyms/101-carrier-aggregation-explained

 

[cavedog]

I am confused. Rain has been selling their network as a all LTE-A network, but from what I have read here it actually aint LTE-A at all?



http://www.3gpp.org/technologies/keywords-acronyms/101-carrier-aggregation-explained

The thing is with LTE-A there does not seem to be a SET standard where this needs to happen to be LTE advanced.... So currently service providers with 20MHz bandwidth claim they have LTE-A when they don't.

Samsung considers anything with 20MHz or higher and cat 6 LTE as LTE-A[4G+/LTE+]

Huawei and most Chinese phones and devices consider any LTE that allows carrier aggregation irrespective of bandwidth capabilities LTE-A.

So here is a good example.

Rain band 38 - 2600MHz TDD has 20Mhz bandwidth. So they are calling this LTE-A
Cellc band 1 - 2100MHz FDD has 5MHz bandwidth and Band 3 - 1800MHz FDD has 10Mhz bandwidth. Both of these are just normal LTE but Cellc aggregate these two giving a total of 15Mhz bandwidth and so devices like Huawei show them as Having LTE-A or 4G+

Very interesting to not that both Rain and Telkom has 20MHz in the 2600MHz and 2300Mhz frequencies respectively so they would in most cases provide better speeds than Cellc but Cellc has carrier aggregation so even if they are slower they have LTE-a while Telkom and Rain only have LTE.

This is also the main reason why NO ONE on Cellc with any Samsung smartphone will see 4G+ because their total aggregated bandwidth is just 15MHz while Samsung require the network to have atleast 20Mhz and that is why I say there is no SET standard for what LTE-A really is.

IMO carrier aggregation + minimum 20Mhz bandwidth should LTE-A not either of those two.


IF Rain can get the carrier aggregation right between their two bands band 3 and 38 then they would probably have the best LTE-A network in SA as far as I know MTN and Vodacom does not own that much spectrum and even with refarming other bands the total will not come close to iBurts/WBS/Rain's 30Mhz total. People on Rain - congestion dependent obviously - will see speeds of over 100Mbps in most cases.

 

[Ockie]

The thing is with LTE-A there does not seem to be a SET standard where this needs to happen to be LTE advanced.... So currently service providers with 20MHz bandwidth claim they have LTE-A when they don't.

Samsung considers anything with 20MHz or higher and cat 6 LTE as LTE-A[4G+/LTE+]

Huawei and most Chinese phones and devices consider any LTE that allows carrier aggregation irrespective of bandwidth capabilities LTE-A.

So here is a good example.

Rain band 38 - 2600MHz TDD has 20Mhz bandwidth. So they are calling this LTE-A
Cellc band 1 - 2100MHz FDD has 5MHz bandwidth and Band 3 - 1800MHz FDD has 10Mhz bandwidth. Both of these are just normal LTE but Cellc aggregate these two giving a total of 15Mhz bandwidth and so devices like Huawei show them as Having LTE-A or 4G+

Very interesting to not that both Rain and Telkom has 20MHz in the 2600MHz and 2300Mhz frequencies respectively so they would in most cases provide better speeds than Cellc but Cellc has carrier aggregation so even if they are slower they have LTE-a while Telkom and Rain only have LTE.

This is also the main reason why NO ONE on Cellc with any Samsung smartphone will see 4G+ because their total aggregated bandwidth is just 15MHz while Samsung require the network to have atleast 20Mhz and that is why I say there is no SET standard for what LTE-A really is.

IMO carrier aggregation + minimum 20Mhz bandwidth should LTE-A not either of those two.


IF Rain can get the carrier aggregation right between their two bands band 3 and 38 then they would probably have the best LTE-A network in SA as far as I know MTN and Vodacom does not own that much spectrum and even with refarming other bands the total will not come close to iBurts/WBS/Rain's 30Mhz total. People on Rain - congestion dependent obviously - will see speeds of over 100Mbps in most cases.

Frekking confusing. Thank you for explaining. Makes sense. My personal view is, no aggregation, no LTE-A bragging rights. Perhaps mybroadband should do a article and get the view of the different networks on what they claim to have and what they see as LTE-A and how their network is ACTUALLY set up compared to what LTE-A is supposed to be technically (as per the standard)

 

[cavedog]

Frekking confusing. Thank you for explaining. Makes sense. My personal view is, no aggregation, no LTE-A bragging rights. Perhaps mybroadband should do a article and get the view of the different networks on what they claim to have and what they see as LTE-A and how their network is ACTUALLY set up compared to what LTE-A is supposed to be technically (as per the standard)

I want to see what Vodacom is doing with their LTE-A. I always see 4G+ in most places around Centurion. I want to see if they aggregate what bands and what total aggregated bandwidth they have because I know Vodacom does not have 20MHz so how they getting the 20MHz minimum Samsung deems is LTE-A .

MTN is doing the same with their network but only at hot spots like Gautrain stations, malls and stadiums. Very keen to see how they setting it up. The S8 supports 4CA so I do not think any network in SA has or is doing 5CA just yet I don't think they have that much spectrum scattered around different frequencies.

 

[Ockie]

I want to see what Vodacom is doing with their LTE-A. I always see 4G+ in most places around Centurion. I want to see if they aggregate what bands and what total aggregated bandwidth they have because I know Vodacom does not have 20MHz so how they getting the 20MHz minimum Samsung deems is LTE-A .

MTN is doing the same with their network but only at hot spots like Gautrain stations, malls and stadiums. Very keen to see how they setting it up. The S8 supports 4CA so I do not think any network in SA has or is doing 5CA just yet I don't think they have that much spectrum scattered around different frequencies.

I have sent a PM to Jan and RPM suggesting a article on the LTE-A status of SA networks (how our networks have set it up and what they are advertising compared to the accepted standards as to what constitutes actual LTE-A)

I have never seen LTE-A on my Lenovo Z2 phone, even though GTX Gaming says he has seen it on his on Vodacom.

 

[cavedog]

I have sent a PM to Jan and RPM suggesting a article on the LTE-A status of SA networks (how our networks have set it up and what they are advertising compared to the accepted standards as to what constitutes actual LTE-A)

I have never seen LTE-A on my Lenovo Z2 phone, even though GTX Gaming says he has seen it on his on Vodacom.

I have also requested from RPM to investigate IF a network really can claim LTE-A if they simply have a 20MHz block bandwidth in 1 frequency.

Here is a screenshot of my S8 LTE Service mode. I'm hoping to see what Vodacom does with their network here. I would be able to see carrier aggregation a and mimo.
Maybe you should see if you can do the same. You would see ca in this mode.

Currently there is no lte advanced where I live but as you can see they have 10MHz bandwidth on 1800MHz band 3 so I'm keen to see where they are getting the other 10MHz from because Samsung needs the minimum of 20MHz before it displays 4G+

Will report back tomorrow.

 

[cavedog]

@Ockie you work for Vodacom maybe you can fish some details.Since when does Vodacom have spectrum in 2600MHz band 38..... 20MHz block nogal.

Anyways so Vodacom LTE Advanced is 2CA between 1800MHz band 3 with 10MHz and 2600MHz band 38 with 20MHz bandwidth so they totaling 30MHz. Wow no wonder their LTE-A is exceeding 100Mbps because no one know they have LTE on Band 38 so that band for the is just being used for LTE-A I would imagine.

 

[rpm]

This is interesting. It may be Rain's network only, which means you are roaming on rain, and then benefit from carrier aggregation on Rain's network (they have 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz spectrum).

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

This is interesting. It may be Rain's network only, which means you are roaming on rain, and then benefit from carrier aggregation on Rain's network (they have 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz spectrum).

Which is illegal for Vodacom to use is it not?

 

[cavedog]

This is interesting. It may be Rain's network only, which means you are roaming on rain, and then benefit from carrier aggregation on Rain's network (they have 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz spectrum).

Could be but my testing showed that Rain does not have any carrier aggregation at all and their two LTE bands operate separately and if there is 2ca on Rain why is the Huawei B618 not enabling it?
I missed an opportunity to test Rain if they have CA on my S8 before they locked the network. Seems like my S8 is pretty decent when it comes to CA and supported bands as the S8 supports all the bands and 4CA and 4x4 MIMO.
Very interesting indeed though.

 

[Ockie]

@Ockie you work for Vodacom maybe you can fish some details.Since when does Vodacom have spectrum in 2600MHz band 38..... 20MHz block nogal.

Anyways so Vodacom LTE Advanced is 2CA between 1800MHz band 3 with 10MHz and 2600MHz band 38 with 20MHz bandwidth so they totaling 30MHz. Wow no wonder their LTE-A is exceeding 100Mbps because no one know they have LTE on Band 38 so that band for the is just being used for LTE-A I would imagine.

I have no idea and no one tells me anything.

I was thinking exactly what RPM posted, but that does not make sense in light of the fact that you cant pick up any aggregation on the Rain network. Confusing.

 

[Ockie]

This is interesting. It may be Rain's network only, which means you are roaming on rain, and then benefit from carrier aggregation on Rain's network (they have 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz spectrum).

Was thinking the same....but as per his own tests there is no aggregation on Rain (despite them advertising as a LTE-A only network)

You going to do that article for us I suggested in PM?

 

[cavedog]

I have no idea and no one tells me anything.

I was thinking exactly what RPM posted, but that does not make sense in light of the fact that you cant pick up any aggregation on the Rain network. Confusing.

Well Rain locked their network before I could do decent tests on multiple devices so my statement is directly linked to the fact that Carrier Aggregation does NOT activate on the B618 but maybe it would activate on a S8 or another supported LTE-A Router.

 

[Dretastic06]

I have the toolbox how would I go about changing it to the 2600 to check the speeds?

 

[pouroverguy]

With 2600MHz, I get literally zero bars of signal. Download speeds fluctuate from 18-30mbps.

With 1800MHz, signal improves but download speeds are around 8-9mbps

Interesting..

 

[schalu1993]

1800mhz: 18 download and 1.5 upload
2600mhz: 7 download and 0.3 upload

What does this mean? Is it because of the tower that i am getting much worse speeds on 2600?