Vodacom testing 900 MHz mobile broadband services

[rpm]

Vodacom testing 900 MHz 3G broadband services

Vodacom is actively evaluating UMTS 900 which will give the company far better 3G/HSPA coverage

 

[Ockie]

Exciting stuff. Think this will be a very good move from Vodacom. This should relieve some of the pressure on the 2.1ghz band also i would assume, increasing speeds in both frequencies. But, I also assume this is not going to happen over night.

 

[LancelotSA]

So do these lower frequency transmissions mean we are going to be fried more or less than before?

 

[LazyLion]

So do these lower frequency transmissions mean we are going to be fried more or less than before?

You mean other than the 21 zillion other rays which are already killing you right now?

The answer is... negligible.

 

[LancelotSA]

You mean other than the 21 zillion other rays which are already killing you right now?

The answer is... negligible.

Yip, but is lower frequency more "dangerous" than higher frequencies?

 

[InTheCube]

Lower frequency signals travel further, and with less loss fo quality, and are subject to less interference.

Think of a car with heavy sound in it, blasting away some tunes, driving towards you. As the car approaches, the first thing, and the loudest thing you will hear is the bass, which is a low frequency signal. As the car gets closer, you start to hear the higher frequency sounds, from the Tweeters, and also vocals. After the car passes you, and drives away, the high frequency sounds dissappear, but you can still hear the bass pumping away...

Similar concept with 900mhz vs 21000mhz frequency bands for mobile broadband. The lower frequence signals travel longer distances, and can penetrate through walls and into buildings much easier, in the same way that pumping bass from a car does.

 

[LazyLion]

Yip, but is lower frequency more "dangerous" than higher frequencies?

There are more rays from the sun killing every time you go outside than what one more of these can do.

But the 900 Mhz spectrum has been busy for years.... one more signal is not likely to change the state of the existing spectrum. This is not a new spectrum, but the re-allocation of an existing one.

 

[LancelotSA]

Similar concept with 900mhz vs 21000mhz frequency bands for mobile broadband. The lower frequence signals travel longer distances, and can penetrate through walls and into buildings much easier, in the same way that pumping bass from a car does.

"Penetrate further into flesh and bones" - Aha, so lower more dangerous!

 

[Polymathic]

If the price of data doesn't go down, I don't really care.

 

[Tns]

i also wonder i we as users are now going to pay more ?

 

[Edinetz]

One needs to consider power when determining how harmful signal - consider living under a 312kV Eskom 50Hz power line and next to a cellphone site emitting 900Mhz -2100Mhz cellular site. Then again the local UHF TV transmitter is pumping out more power at almost the same frequency and they have been around for years.

 

[J0n0]

"Penetrate further into flesh and bones" - Aha, so lower more dangerous!

Want a tinfoil hat Lance?

 

[wpswart006]

"Penetrate further into flesh and bones" - Aha, so lower more dangerous!

Using that logic, radio waves should be more dangerous than gamma radiation, and it isn't.

 

[LancelotSA]

Want a tinfoil hat Lance?

I've got a full suit thanks

 

[Tns]

just paint your house with a lead based paint that will reduce the signal, you might die of lead poison though

 

[Rouxenator]

How about dropping the OOB rate on data instead?

 

[Praeses]

850MHz too please? My E51 doesn't support 900MHz except for gsm

 

[Ockie]

850MHz too please? My E51 doesn't support 900MHz except for gsm

Can you guys just clarify this for me. So even if a 3G phone supports 900mhz for GSM, it does not mean that you will be able to use 3G on that band? Does the phone/modem need to be designed to use 3G on the 900mhz band first? :-(

 

[apogeeza]

"Penetrate further into flesh and bones" - Aha, so lower more dangerous!

No - that actually means less dangerous. This is too simplistic, but helps to visualize:
The higher the frequency, the more atoms it can smash (in a vertical stack.)
The lower the frequency, the less atoms, therefore goes further because it smashes against fewer atoms and loses less energy as it does so.

examples in practice:
- low frequency sound waves by whales are not dangerous at all but travel thousands of Kms
- the high frequency light from a supernova will kill all life on the surface of the earth but will not go very deep (burrowing animals will survive and deeper ocean fish will too.)

where do you want to sit on that scale?
I'll go with low frequency of whales and elephants, and leave the pretty lights alone.

 

[davemc]

So, in 2043, we will have Short Wave cell phones, capable of reaching the tower some 3000 km's away, so long as there is cloud cover.
Much like Short Wave (laughable name really) radio.