GSM 8520 / 1900 band?

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Ockie

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GSM 850 / 1900 band?

Hi guys. I was just wondering.....why dont we have access to these bands in South Africa for our mobile operators? Are they being used for something else? Or is it that they are too close to the 900/1800 bands thats already in use?

I am just wondering because surely these bands can be used to increase capacity? I tried to search for info but nothing useful came up.
 
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The GSM 900MHz band uses channels between 870.4 and 914.8MHz for the uplink, GSM 850 uses channels between 869.0 and 894.0MHz for the downlink. Although the channel assignments are not identical it would be impossible for the two systems to co-exit without considerable problems, more so where the base radiates on the uplink frequencies!!

Likewise GSM 1800 uses 1805.2 – 1879.8MHz downlink and GSM 1900 uses 1850.0 – 1910.0MHz for its uplink.

I think that there are also some ITU issues...
 
So the next network,5th one would use 1800 or 1900 cause only Cell C / 8.ta and Mtn use the 1800,1900 is un-used right,but dam da amount of towers needed for that
 
SUPERMAN89 said:
So the next network,5th one would use 1800 or 1900 cause only Cell C / 8.ta and Mtn use the 1800,1900 is un-used right,but dam da amount of towers needed for that
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Well, thats the thing....all our mobile operators are running on those bands which is why they are propably so congested, specially in metro areas. I am sure it makes planning new towers very hard to make sure they dont cause interference etc etc. That is why I thought if we could start using those other bands then it would make so much more space and make life a lot easier for our operators?

Did you guys know there is a 450mhz GSM band....but it is not in use anywhere in the world yet. Can you imagine the coverage you will get with that baby??? wow.
 
There is space in 900,not all is used.yip parts of euro use 450,but we got tv using that space.wonder what would happen wen dvb-t comes into place.there has to be space for another network
 
SUPERMAN89 said:
There is space in 900,not all is used.yip parts of euro use 450,but we got tv using that space.wonder what would happen wen dvb-t comes into place.there has to be space for another network
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Really? I would have thought its all used by our operators. Out of interest....lets say a tower is configured to use both bands...how many users can that BTS accomodate at any one time? I have looked for these kind of answers on the interwebz...but it is all very complicated and I dont understand it.
 
ocleroux said:
Really? I would have thought its all used by our operators. Out of interest....lets say a tower is configured to use both bands...how many users can that BTS accomodate at any one time? I have looked for these kind of answers on the interwebz...but it is all very complicated and I dont understand it.
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That depends on the technology using them. GSM (TDMA) can handle less users than UMTS (CDMA). But the reason they aren't really used is the overlap. UHF TV is in the 850 and 900 bands, hence why digital tv migration is wanted so badly since it will free up that spectrum.
 
80% used up on 900MHz wise lol acd to S.A allocation table,id say enough for next network to have umbl coverage (sowi 4 the abv using my mobile to type)
 
UnUnOctium said:
That depends on the technology using them. GSM (TDMA) can handle less users than UMTS (CDMA). But the reason they aren't really used is the overlap. UHF TV is in the 850 and 900 bands, hence why digital tv migration is wanted so badly since it will free up that spectrum.
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SUPERMAN89 said:
80% used up on 900MHz wise lol acd to S.A allocation table,id say enough for next network to have umbl coverage (sowi 4 the abv using my mobile to type)
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Wow...thanks guys. It is not cool when you curious about these things and when you try find answers on the interwebz you get answers that you need bachelors degree to decipher it.

Makes sense now. Lets hope our new DOC dude gets the migration over with chop chop and stop ***** footing around with the ISD what what standard so we can get the ball rolling on this. urg.
 
ocleroux said:
Wow...thanks guys. It is not cool when you curious about these things and when you try find answers on the interwebz you get answers that you need bachelors degree to decipher it.

Makes sense now. Lets hope our new DOC dude gets the migration over with chop chop and stop ***** footing around with the ISD what what standard so we can get the ball rolling on this. urg.
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Well, my research (doing MSc and if finances are hopefully sorted, upgrading to PhD) involves this (Multi-carrier systems in general). It is a difficult subject to explain to (non-specialist) people since only the basics (frequency, bandwidth) are known, the rest is pretty much specialised knowledge which one needs tertiary for. I was thinking of starting a thread focusing on wireless comms and information theory (because I love disseminating valuable knowledge) but don't think there will be much interest :(

By the way, you're at vodacom, do they offer postgraduate bursaries?
 
UnUnOctium said:
By the way, you're at vodacom, do they offer postgraduate bursaries?
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Hi UnUnOctium. I am not directly involved with Vodacom. My payslip does not come from them :-)

But I know that Vodacom does offer financial assistance to their employees to further their studies. I am not sure exactly how it works, who qualifies and what the terms and conitions are.
 
ocleroux said:
Hi UnUnOctium. I am not directly involved with Vodacom. My payslip does not come from them :-)

But I know that Vodacom does offer financial assistance to their employees to further their studies. I am not sure exactly how it works, who qualifies and what the terms and conitions are.
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Oh, my bad, somehow had the impression that you worked for them.
I'm too young to be working so doing studies/research full-time, tried searching their site, only undergrad bursaries on the site :(
 
ocleroux said:
Did you guys know there is a 450mhz GSM band....but it is not in use anywhere in the world yet. Can you imagine the coverage you will get with that baby??? wow.
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Plus one at 380MHz and another at 410MHz! Have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_bands

There are international regulatory issues that would prevent countries just using say 450MHz for example without clearance!

Also these "other" cellular frequencies are often used by other "unpublished" services that can not be moved, for example military communications and specialist RADAR systems!
 
I think I should correct my comment made before about capacity for another network on the 900MHz band.

Actually 82% of the band is used and there has to be enough space for both uplink and downlink.
890.10-901.10 and 935.10-946.10 are the bands used.

There is capacity here and there for another network,but on 900MHz uhm
 
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