{"id":152639,"date":"2016-01-22T06:53:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T04:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=152639"},"modified":"2016-01-22T06:55:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T04:55:06","slug":"vodacom-lte-advanced-is-here-with-impressive-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/152639-vodacom-lte-advanced-is-here-with-impressive-results.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom LTE-Advanced is here, with impressive results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom rolled out its LTE-Advanced service to a handful of sites in Gauteng in November and December 2015.<\/p>\n

Vodacom switched on its LTE-A service at Vodacom World in Midrand; Gautrain Station platforms in Sandton, Rosebank, and Park; and the Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

The performance of Vodacom\u2019s LTE-A service is impressive, with typical download speeds exceeding 100Mbps.<\/p>\n

Supported smartphones<\/h3>\n

LTE-A handset support is still limited, but some latest-generation high-end smartphones already have LTE-A connectivity.<\/p>\n

LTE-A-capable phones include the Samsung Galaxy S6+<\/a><\/strong>, the Samsung Note 5<\/a><\/strong>, and the iPhone 6s<\/a><\/strong> and iPhone 6s Plus.<\/p>\n

Samsung uses a 4G+ logo to show LTE-A, and a 4G logo to show LTE.<\/p>\n

A lack of spectrum a big challenge<\/h3>\n

The lack of spectrum<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0it has access to posed a big challenge for Vodacom when rolling out LTE-A.<\/p>\n

Vodacom could only use sites where it had good control over the environment – typically sites which acted as a contained environment where it was possible to control external interference.<\/p>\n

Vodacom also\u00a0had to re-farm spectrum in both the 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz bands. This included using 2 x 10MHz in the 1,800MHz band that had to be re-farmed from 2G, and between 5MHz and 15MHz in the 2,100MHz band that had to be re-farmed from the 3G band.<\/p>\n

For its deployment, Vodacom used a combination of MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) and SISO (single input, single output) antennae.<\/p>\n

Other technical solutions then had to be implemented to avoid performance impacts on the 2G and 3G base, including re-farming 900MHz from 2G to 3G.<\/p>\n

Vodacom said the current data speeds could be substantially higher, but a lack of spectrum is severely hampering the roll-out and the performance of LTE-Advanced.<\/p>\n

It said it is looking to roll-out further LTE-A sites, but a lack of spectrum is limiting these plans.<\/p>\n

Vodacom LTE-A speeds<\/h3>\n

The screenshots below show tests on the Vodacom LTE-A network at various sites around Gauteng.<\/p>\n

\"Brooklyn

Brooklyn Mall LTE-A test using 4 handsets<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Brooklyn

Brooklyn Mall LTE-A test<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Park

Park Station LTE-A test<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Rosebank

Rosebank Station LTE-A test<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sandton

Sandton Station LTE-A test<\/p><\/div>\n

More on Vodacom and LTE-Advanced<\/h3>\n

Vodacom hits 270Mbps on 4G<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vodacom breaks 200Mbps with 4G<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom has rolled out its LTE-Advanced service to a handful of sites, with peak speeds exceeding 100Mbps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":110464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[35,9177,27659,41],"class_list":["post-152639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-headline","tag-lte-advanced","tag-lte-a","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152639"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152715,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152639\/revisions\/152715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}