from itweb:
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/feedback/feedcopy.asp?CommentID=3973
Early expectations of 3G unfounded
BY CTO OF A UK MOBILE OPERATOR, CTO OF A UK MOBILE OPERATOR, A UK MOBILE OPERATOR
[9 Feb 2005 ] I am CTO of a telecoms company in the UK, a mobile operator, I have been working on our Broadband project for the last 2 years. Nothing wrong with the contents in your article but I do believe the early expectations of 3G and associated edge technologies (unless you are talking about Wimax) are unfounded. We have had 3G networks here in the UK for some time now and the services offering can hardly be described as Broadband. The actual performance does not equal that of our plain old Home ADSL package of 512/256kbps or cable DOCSIS cable modems as offered by Telewest and NTL in the UK. (I had an interesting discussion here in London with one of the MTN engineers who told me they had been looking closely at Wimax).
The uptake of 3G has been disappointing and if you look at the penetration into the Broadband market as advertised by OFCOM in the UK 3G has hardly made any impression at all. The uptake of fixed Broadband in the UK has spectacular with 100,000 new subscribers per week. This is due to the excellent quality of the service and the relatively low cost. Example: I have a 1152/320kbps package (50:1 contention) and I pay only £29.99pm. If one is earning pounds this is very cheap indeed.
There seems to be a great deal of hype in SA with mobile technology for some reason but that is not where the demand lies in Europe. Broadband sales in 2003 overtook the sale of Mobile phones for the first time and late last year revenues of Broadband in Europe overtook digital television for the first time.
I was in Johannesburg recently and one of my friends proudly showed me his Telkom ADSL. I have to say I don`t think it comes close to what we are used to. There seems to be a bottleneck on the International portion which defeats to whole object of Broadband. With de-regulation happening there, however slow, it is hoped that the regulators will wake up and allow ISPs to `self provide` as they say. This is the only way SA will get real Broadband as we know it. It is really awesome!
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/feedback/feedcopy.asp?CommentID=3973
Early expectations of 3G unfounded
BY CTO OF A UK MOBILE OPERATOR, CTO OF A UK MOBILE OPERATOR, A UK MOBILE OPERATOR
[9 Feb 2005 ] I am CTO of a telecoms company in the UK, a mobile operator, I have been working on our Broadband project for the last 2 years. Nothing wrong with the contents in your article but I do believe the early expectations of 3G and associated edge technologies (unless you are talking about Wimax) are unfounded. We have had 3G networks here in the UK for some time now and the services offering can hardly be described as Broadband. The actual performance does not equal that of our plain old Home ADSL package of 512/256kbps or cable DOCSIS cable modems as offered by Telewest and NTL in the UK. (I had an interesting discussion here in London with one of the MTN engineers who told me they had been looking closely at Wimax).
The uptake of 3G has been disappointing and if you look at the penetration into the Broadband market as advertised by OFCOM in the UK 3G has hardly made any impression at all. The uptake of fixed Broadband in the UK has spectacular with 100,000 new subscribers per week. This is due to the excellent quality of the service and the relatively low cost. Example: I have a 1152/320kbps package (50:1 contention) and I pay only £29.99pm. If one is earning pounds this is very cheap indeed.
There seems to be a great deal of hype in SA with mobile technology for some reason but that is not where the demand lies in Europe. Broadband sales in 2003 overtook the sale of Mobile phones for the first time and late last year revenues of Broadband in Europe overtook digital television for the first time.
I was in Johannesburg recently and one of my friends proudly showed me his Telkom ADSL. I have to say I don`t think it comes close to what we are used to. There seems to be a bottleneck on the International portion which defeats to whole object of Broadband. With de-regulation happening there, however slow, it is hoped that the regulators will wake up and allow ISPs to `self provide` as they say. This is the only way SA will get real Broadband as we know it. It is really awesome!
