{"id":14264,"date":"2010-08-04T23:23:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T21:23:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-08-04T23:23:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T21:23:00","slug":"cell-c-s-4g-network-ceo-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/14264-cell-c-s-4g-network-ceo-explains.html","title":{"rendered":"Cell C\u2019s 4G network: CEO explains"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January this year Cell C<\/a> CEO Lars P. Reichelt<\/a> announced that “few would have predicted that Cell C would ever lead the industry as far as network infrastructure is concerned but it is a fact that Cell C will be the first South African operator to roll out HSPA+ technologies incorporating download speeds of up to 21Mbit\/s – three times faster than anything currently available.”<\/p>\n

Vodacom and MTN however launched commercial 21 Mbps HSPA+<\/a> services earlier this year, which means that Reichelt’s claims were less than prophetic. <\/p>\n

In the same January 2010 press statement Reichelt said that they are “on track to deliver a 4G network that will offer the kind of connectivity that South Africans have been craving”.<\/p>\n

Reichelt’s claim that Cell C is rolling out a 4G network drew sharp criticism from tech-savvy consumers and industry players, and the Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys even poked fun at Reichelt’s claims calling his 4G network an urban legend.<\/p>\n

Despite numerous attempts to get Reichelt to explain why he classifies his network as a 4G network, the Cell C CEO would not engage in a discussion on the matter. <\/p>\n

The truth is that it is currently impossible to roll out a 4G network as the 4G standards have not been ratified yet.  To call a network 4G means that it must support a peak data rate of 100Mbps for high mobility applications and 1Gbps for low mobility applications such as nomadic\/local wireless access.<\/p>\n

What 4G means to Cell C<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a recent media event Reichelt discussed the 4G network debate, and while the Cell C CEO did not admit that he wrongly used the term, he did concede that it is impossible to build a 4G network as the standard is not yet there to do it.<\/p>\n

Reichelt however explained that the term is currently used to show that their new HSPA+ network will offer ‘For Great Support’ and ‘For Great Speed’ – hence 4Gs means ‘For Great Speeds’ and ‘For Great Support’.<\/p>\n

This 4Gs network description forms part of a larger Cell C marketing campaign which will see the company being re-branded as a consumer centric operator with a comedian Trevor Noah as their new customer experience officer.  The company also got a new logo and branding which is being rolled out to all Cell C outlets.<\/p>\n

New look company with new network and new goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the 4G marketing term may be debated in months to come, it is clear that Reichelt has a strategy for Cell C which is likely to benefit broadband and telecoms consumers in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Cell C is investing R5 billion in its new 900 MHz HSPA+ network, with another R2 billion spent on IT systems to support this network.  Reichelt added that they are also planning to spend a few billion more next year on their network rollout.<\/p>\n

Cell C currently has over 1300 HSPA+ 900 live transmitters, with a fibre backbone and IP access secured.  Cell C is however not stopping here, and is planning to have 30% HSPA+ population coverage by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

It took Vodacom nearly 5 years to reach 50% 3G population coverage using 2100 MHz, and Cell C’s strategy to use 900 MHz – which provides three to five times better coverage and better in-building penetration – makes it far easier for the company to reach consumers.<\/p>\n

Reichelt added that Cell C is also looking at building its own fibre network to alleviate the reliance on other providers where the cost of bandwidth and capacity can become future obstacles in their broadband growth.<\/p>\n

Cell C’s new 21 Mbps HSPA+ network, coupled with its drive to put the customer at the centre of its operations, is likely to make Vodacom and MTN sit up and take note.  To date Cell C has not been a significant threat to the two incumbent mobile operators, but if Reichelt’s strategy succeeds consumers may see significant improvements in both service levels and competitive pricing.<\/p>\n

Cell C’s 4Gs network<\/a><\/strong> << comments and views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt explains why they call their network 4G and what consumers can expect from them in future<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cellular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}