SNO Telecoms in starting blocks

Since government is funding Sentech I reckon they should be the ones to find another frequency to use NOT SNOT.

Sentech is protecting it's wireless broadband investments - that's all there is to it.
 
What's more important for the country's future economic growth & prosperity; a sharper SABC/eTV picture or cheap fast broadband.

I know who I would give the spectrum to if I were the regulator.
 
Roman4604 said:
What's more important for the country's future economic growth & prosperity; a sharper SABC/eTV picture or cheap fast broadband.

I know who I would give the spectrum to if I were the regulator.
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Yah - if govmint truly gave a crap about growth & prosperity, they would have fully liberalised telecommunications years ago.... besides, populism wins over progress in the current environment, so the govmint better not mess with its constituency's SABC picture. They will preserve the SABC picture quality 'for the people', or some other backward reason.
 
Roman4604 said:
What's more important for the country's future economic growth & prosperity; a sharper SABC/eTV picture or cheap fast broadband.
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What channel sits at 800MHz anyway?
 
815MHz mnet Open Time
847MHz SABC 3
784MHz SABC 1
751MHz SABC 2

But that is only in Stellenbosch - the rest of the country will probably be different.
The quality of the television signal should not be affected by going to a lower frequency - that part of the spectrum (600Mhz-900Mhz) could carry a lot more channels. I'm not sure though if the infrastructure that is in place atm can be easily switched to lower frequencies. Maybe someone else could comment on that.
Also see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high_frequency

But SNO seems confidant that sharing that part of the spectrum is not impossible.
SNO Telecom wants access to the 800 MHz band but this frequency is already used by Sentech to carry terrestrial television signals. To counteract this and to avoid the need for consumers to retune their television sets, SNO Telecom has proposed geographically "interleaving" its CDMA network with Sentech's broadcast signals. It says this is technically feasible, and has already conducted a pilot in the north of Johannesburg which, it says, proves its case.

"We are of the view that the TV broadcast spectrum is being used inefficiently," says Hay. Roughly half of the radio spectrum below 1 GHz is used for television. SNO Telecom wants access to 4% of this. "We're not even saying we want it exclusively.
Hay says SNO Telecom could build a national CDMA network using the 800 MHz band without broadcasters being any the wiser.
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ic said:
SNOT would rather offer a proprietary CDMA broadband service that is not supported by any other broadband competitor in SA - the effect is that customers are locked into SNOT due to their [probably large] cash investment in a SNOTty-CDMA device
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Maybe they want to reuse their CDMA equipment they used in India? So it won't cost them a cent?
 
Mmmm. One thing everyone seems to be missing here is Sentech's wishes to run its own voice network, particularly using its mywireless 3G backbone. In fact, Sentech have been testing several voip solutions over various networks, including over Satellite. Sentech is also hoping to enter the Pay Satellite market soon - and leveraging their voip ambitions through such a platform is not entirely improbable. So why on earth would they willingly let a competitor (who has no network to begin with) license a spectrum that they currently have full exclusive access to?

The SNO needs to investigate wireless alternatives, as it will take them far too long to catch up if they build an exclusively wired network. Telkom is going to rip them for access to the local loop - unless it gets unbundled (which won't happen). That being said, if they start rolling out a wired network such as IP over Powerline, they will suffer the full brunt of teething problems related to a new and by definition completely untested technology. The SNO needs to make a call, and commit to that decision of going predominantly wired or predominantly wireless. Going wireless now would mean a faster rollout. Going wired now would mean an extremely slow rollout and excessive charges as Telkom would still control the pricing on the supply chain. Wireless is unfortunately their only probability to setting up an infrastructure in the short and medium term.

Watch Sentech activities carefully over the second half of this year - particularly regarding its satellite endeavours, they may prove to be a bigger thorn in the SNOt's side than some people currently think.
 
So infact we will just be getting another sentech/iburst type offering with the same issues...latency reliability etc... Wireless IMO should only be used in the interim by them while they build their wired network.... They will not be able to compete with Telkom if it decides to roll out triple play etc....
 
Toby said:
Why the Fetish over Wired Networks.

Non physically wired networks are the only way to go, (remember, they must cover the country and not just inner Gauteng, where the market for unsheathed fibre may not be that great.
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Remember that wireless tends to ruin the use of applications that require low latency...

That is why folks (gamers etc) don't like wireless all that much. Wireless has got is applications and is very useful in South Africa, but the government, the SNO et al will have disappointed South Africans if the SNO is not going to invest heavily in fixed line infrastructure. Wireless is not going to give Telkom a run for its money when it comes to solid broadband offerings.
 
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The only potential upside of this is that when SNOt finally do offer fixed line services to home users, the potential for 1 account to have a broadband connection nationwide then exists (I could then use my home office comp for low latency work via fixed line, and my laptop when I travel). Hopefully not having to sign up with multiple vendors (Telkom for ADSL and Sentech/Iburst/CDMA-co for wireless) will actually translate to cost savingS.... but knowing how these money-grubbers work, I assume that the fixed line vs wireless accounts will be separated.
 
feo said:
Nah I want FTTH (Fibre To The Home)...Japan has like 4 MILLION FTTH subscribers... :(
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You can get it, in some selected new residential developments in SA. GE-PON FTTH gives you 1/10Gbps for every 32/64 homes depending which product you use and on which version of the 802.3ah standard it is based.
 
A str8 question Fiberfan... are you working in the industry..? What is your interest... since you are new here... just curious.
Cheers
 
thorin1 said:
A str8 question Fiberfan... are you working in the industry..? What is your interest... since you are new here... just curious.
Cheers
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I am in the industry, sort of. My interest is the same as most people posting on this forum - I want to see true uncapped broadband at a fixed, low cost monthly charge. I want to play realistic 3D games running on a server without owning the game, and I want to rent movies when they come out, when I want, how I want and without having to get out of my Lazyboy. I want to make free phonecalls that utilise my broadband and I dont want to wait 6 months to get a DSL line. So in general I am a fan of any and all FTTH technology...
 
Anybody know where Angus Hay & Johan Raath come from? What they did before this? Just curious...

CacklinTard
__________
Scarred For Life - No Compensation ;)
 
anymore updates on when SNOT would be launching any products?
 
CacklinToad said:
Anybody know where Angus Hay & Johan Raath come from? What they did before this? Just curious...

CacklinTard
__________
Scarred For Life - No Compensation ;)
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Most likely Transtel when it comes to Dr Angus Hay
 
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