EDGE vs 3G vs LTE

[Randux]

It is a natural resource really. Spectrum and its bands stretches from visible light for example all they way up to X-Rays and gamma rays etc. When it comes to commercial bands like the ones we use for Radio, TV and Cellular Networks...each country has a body that governs who may use it and what frequency you may operate on. This needs to be regulated to prevent one provider interfering with another.

This is the kind of thing that we went into @ physics class in highschool if I remember correctly. I also remember I completely sucked at it and switched subjects very soon after lol

That clears it up for me thanx.

 

[sajunky]

Something I've always wondered about is spectrum/bands. What is that really?

This things becomes clear if you understand that wider frequency band means more information can be coneveyed during certain time. Ockie explained it right, I want to add that at current stage of technology LTE is not more efficient in terms of spectral density (more Bytes/s per 1 MHz). The same is observed with HSPA+ evolution. Any further speed increase from Rel7 (21Mbps or 28Mbps with MIMO) is achieved by allocating wider frequency band from initial 5MHz band in Rel7.
So if we compare 28Mbps from 5MHz band in HSPA+ Rel7 to 100Mbps from 20MHz band in LTE, LTE is not more spectrum efficient than HSPA+, at least an initial release.
You have the same limitations like sharing the bandwith amoung number of users, however development goes in direction of more towers covering much smaller areas, which is good in terms of radiation polution and serving more users in the same time at acceptable level.

 

[Tim the Techxpert]

Not much to add to this discussion.
What I would like to reflect on though is that the rollout of LTE and 60MB/s is still progress as we move to being more of a first world communication environment.
We also need to remember that 18 years ago we did not even have a cell phone network nor a choice in the fixed line provider.
I would though like to see ICASA move faster on allocating spectrum to be used not to mention the implementation of digital TV to make some more areas available.

Regards

Tim

 

[sajunky]

I would though like to see ICASA move faster on allocating spectrum to be used not to mention the implementation of digital TV to make some more

And I would like to see cellphone companies to honour state laws, particularly CPA. Unless they make their contracts to comply with CPA, I wouldn't bother to do anything in current situation.
Bandwith is a natural resource, must be used wisely.