Major advances to mobile internet
MOBILE data communication offers the best potential for widespread internet connectivity in SA and the rest of Africa because so many people use mobile phones. In addition, 3G-capable handsets have come down in price to about R800 and can be expected to become even more affordable, says Kutty Kanagaratnam, director of radio access sales at Ericsson.
He says a major plus for mobile internet is that the operators already have national coverage and it is easier for them to add capacity and equipment to their existing masts than for Neotel and Telkom to roll out new wireless networks. “So there is a lot of potential for mobile data connectivity.”
The speed of 3G/HSDPA mobile data connectivity is expected to increase over the next two years and more phone handsets at lower prices will be available to support it. At 7,2 megabits per second (mbps) on the downlink and 1,4mbps on the uplink, the maximum speed of HSDPA rivals that of ADSL, he says.
However, with ADSL data travels across a copper wire cable, providing faster response when accessing websites, especially if there are many graphic objects on the web page. “With mobile there is a delay."
In addition, with 3G/HSDPA throughput speeds fluctuate depending on the number of users linking to a mast at the same time, but improvements in the performance of the existing HSDPA service are expected towards the end of this year or early next year that should put it on a par with ADSL, he says.
He says HSDPA peak rates are expected to double next year to 14,4mbps on the downlink and 5,8mbps on the uplink and double again in 2010 to 28mbps on the downlink and remain at 5,8mbps on the uplink. Thereafter, in 2010 mobile communication will evolve into long-term evolution (LTE), an advanced technology that will boost peak speeds to 100mbps on the downlink and 50mbps on the uplink.
Kanagaratnam says new techniques are in the pipeline that will allow more information to be carried over the same capacity of wireless spectrum, which is a scarce resource.
“LTE will include techniques that will push spectrum optimisation still further.”
He says LTE will run on 2,1 and 2,6 gigahertz and 850 and 900 megahertz spectrum and the international standards body is also considering allowing it to run on the 700 megahertz spectrum.
Two of the major bottlenecks that affect mobile internet connectivity currently occur during transmission of the data between the cellular mast and the mobile operator’s network and over the link from there out of SA to the rest of the world, he says.
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