43Mbps HSPA+ from Vodacom
According to the latest Ookla Net Index statistics Vodacom increased the average broadband speed on its network from 2.38Mbps to 4.31Mbps over the last four months.
Vodacom’s average upload speed, currently sitting at 1.72Mbps, has also seen a significant increase over the last few months.
The reason behind this increase in speeds has now become clear. Vodacom today announced the fact that they have exceeded 1,000 active 43.2Mbps HSPA+ sites on their network, boosting capacity and increasing the overall performance of the network.
Vodacom currently has over 4,300 3G (HSPA) sites in South Africa, of which 2,650 are 21Mbps enabled with the rest all supporting speeds of 14.4Mbps. Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys pointed out that they would like to roll out at least another 1,000 3G towers in the coming year.
Vodacom CTO Andries Delport said that the company further plans to have at least 2,000 43.2Mbps HSPA+ towers by May 2011.
In a live 43Mbps HSPA+ test this morning Vodacom illustrated local latency of around 30ms and peak speeds of over 37Mbps when downloading content from the Internet.
It was also possible to stream high definition videos without any buffering using the technology, even when simultaneously downloading content and performing other tasks online.
Timely announcement
Chris Ross, Managing Executive of Products and Services at Vodacom, said that they did not want to make an announcement before they have significant 43.2Mbps HSPA+ coverage and before 43Mbps HSPA+ dongles were available.
Ross pointed out that they have 43Mbps coverage in many parts across the country which makes this announcement significant.
Despite the higher peak speeds which are possible on the network because of the 43Mbps HSPA+ growth, Vodacom said that they are focusing on increasing the average broadband performance on their network rather than merely boosting peak speeds in a few areas.
To boost the average broadband performance Vodacom is not only increasing radio network speeds (like the 43Mbps HSPA+ upgrades), but is also bumping up transmission capacity through a variety of fibre projects.
Delport said that Vodacom is planning to have 2,000 mobile sites connected to fibre by the end of the current financial year.
The new 43Mbps HSPA+ dongles will be in stores and bundles with existing data packages.
Uys concluded that consumers can also expect more value from Vodacom in the broadband market on a wider range of data products.
Cell C and MTN also rolling out 43Mbps HSPA+ networks
Vodacom’s celebration of exceeding a thousand 43Mbps HSPA+ sites comes only days before Cell C is set to officially launch its first 43Mbps HSPA+ network in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, 19 April 2011.
MTN has also started to roll out a 43Mbps network. “MTN is continuously rolling out both 21M and 43M sites in the country,” said MTN SA CTO Kanagaratnam Lambotharan.
“Our approach is to ensure that we meet the demand requirements of our subscribers, as measured by the physical location of the appropriate devices – as a first priority. Currently we have hundreds of ‘21M or better’ active sites in our network.”
43Mbps HSPA+ from Vodacom << Comments and views
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