More on SA cell towers

New sector antennas installed on a local tower. No cables yet so keeping an eye on it.

@cavedog - what you reckon? Telkom?
 

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This thought I post it here too. This is the antennas for Rain 5G. It broadcasts 4G Band 3 and Band 38 and also 5G N78. At the tower base there is a pool pump size box which houses the equipment I will get better pics this weekend.

20191021_065411.jpg
 
cavedog said:
This thought I post it here too. This is the antennas for Rain 5G. It broadcasts 4G Band 3 and Band 38 and also 5G N78. At the tower base there is a pool pump size box which houses the equipment I will get better pics this weekend.

View attachment 792159
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They are really small compared to the 4G ones!
 
dotcat said:
@cavedog Thats 8 different cables i can count.


1.8km with direct LOS - so the 8 cables mean 4x4 mimo?
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It's a little bit far that for using internal antenna in the router.

Not too sure but I would imagine so. Not an expert at all and very limited info available online. Also how the multiple frequencies play a role on the number of ports used. Telkom rolls out 4x4 mimo on all the new towers you can always see the number of ports used is way more than the other networks.
 
cavedog said:
It's a little bit far that for using internal antenna in the router.

Not too sure but I would imagine so. Not an expert at all and very limited info available online. Also how the multiple frequencies play a role on the number of ports used. Telkom rolls out 4x4 mimo on all the new towers you can always see the number of ports used is way more than the other networks.
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@cavedog
Local MTN tower went down yesterday so went to check it out. Seems like they have upgraded the antenna to these massive ones - is that 11 connected ports I count? Maybe their 5G rollout?
 

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Adding new antenna on my Telkom tower. @cavedog

Interesting antenna with the depression in the middle and the ports off to one side. Wonder what they are for?
 

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dotcat said:
Adding new antenna on my Telkom tower. @cavedog

Interesting antenna with the depression in the middle and the ports off to one side. Wonder what they are for?
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@cavedog Funny that Telkom are using Commscope antenna and not Huawei.

https://www.commscope.com/product-t...t/base-station-antennas/itemrrzzt4-65a-r5-v2/

Includes 2x Single Column X-Pol Arrays for 694-960MHz and 2x Single Column X-Pol Arrays for 1427-2690MHz, suitable for 4x MIMO applications
Also includes 1x 4-Column Array for 2300-2690 MHz with calibration port. Column spacing optimized to support Soft Split Beamforming
A calibration port is provided for the 4-Column Array
5 Internal RET’s provide independent electrical tilt control for each array
Supports re-configurable antenna sharing capability. Factory setting puts 2.6 GHz RET control (Y3) on AISG2, all other arrays have RET control on AISG1.
 
So seems as though the antenna on the MTN towers in the area are all being replaced with what I'm guessing is the the Huawei ASI4517R3v06.
 

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Some more pics:
MTN replacing antenna with their new Huawei ones:
mtn-taking-cell-c-spot.JPG
Telkom Commscope Antenna
Telkom Comscope.JPG
The grey box found on Vodacom Towers that indicate that Rain is broadcasting from their antenna
vodacom-with-rain-grey-box.JPG
Close up of the antenna ports on the MTN Huawei ASI4517R3v06
MTN-ASI4517R3v06.JPG
 
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dotcat said:
Some more pics:
MTN replacing what may be Cell C antenna with their new Huawei ones:
View attachment 930519
Telkom Commscope Antenna
View attachment 930513
The grey box found on Vodacom Towers that indicate that Rain is broadcasting from their antenna
View attachment 930515
Close up of the antenna ports on the MTN Huawei ASI4517R3v06
View attachment 930517
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Note the difference in ports from the old antennas and the new ones. I saw MTN with 4CA in Sandton. Band 3 (10MHz x 2) Band 1 (10MHz x1) and Band 8 (5MHz) x1 and this produced a speedtest over 200Mbps. I'm thinking I will get more but I'm sure there is a lot of users on that tower in Sandton.
 
@cavedog Interesting that Telkom seem to have plugged cables into the 694–960Mhz ports on their Commscope antenna even though they dont have spectrum in this range - or do they?
 
dotcat said:
@cavedog Interesting that Telkom seem to have plugged cables into the 694–960Mhz ports on their Commscope antenna even though they dont have spectrum in this range - or do they?
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@cavedog so this now makes sense as they are now broadcasting on band 20 - 806mhz. Wonder if they can do CA with band 20, 3 and 1?
 
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