Cell C's 21 Mbps HSPA+ network: What to expect

Asked whether Cell C was struggling to get the network ready for operation in larger centres like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria, Reddick said it wasn't a struggle, “just a lot more work.”
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Durban isit a large city????

According to this map KZN has most of South Africa's population next to G.P:whistle:

BUT!!!! No worries we going get it before there other 3 "big" cities so who cares:D:D:D:D
 
My SP has finally stepped up their game (Stepup4Gs :D) ...bad joke :/

Looking forward to getting this when they launch here.

+100
 
SUPERMAN89 said:
Durban isit a large city????

According to this map KZN has most of South Africa's population next to G.P:whistle:

BUT!!!! No worries we going get it before there other 3 "big" cities so who cares:D:D:D:D
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No one cares about Durban ... its time to move! Hope Cell C continues to offer good deals and ensures quality along that path.
 
This is funny, i am from Port Elizabeth, proud of it. but i really had a good laugh at this one. how many people in PE have HSPA+ modems and/or phones????!?!? that network will have 0% load surely
 
42 Mbps ? woahhh easy does it - just roll out proper coverage to all areas, even if it is only 2 - 8 Mbps, before trying to outdo other ISP's with speed.......but in only a few select areas
 
CrazYmonkeY159 said:
This is funny, i am from Port Elizabeth, proud of it. but i really had a good laugh at this one. how many people in PE have HSPA+ modems and/or phones????!?!? that network will have 0% load surely
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just get the bundle?
most phones nowadays are 3G anyways...no need to go 21Mbps to burn that 5 GB :)
 
Every third article on MyBB is related to CellC, how much are they paying MyBB???
 
surfs-up said:
42 Mbps ? woahhh easy does it - just roll out proper coverage to all areas, even if it is only 2 - 8 Mbps, before trying to outdo other ISP's with speed.......but in only a few select areas
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The 42 Mbps will be the maximum capacity per 5 MHz channel, with SA operators typically using two channels per sector (one uplink, one downlink?). This capacity is shared between all users in that sector, roughly equally. So to achieve approximately 8 Mbps per user on a 21 Mbps-rated system, you can only support about two simultaneous users (IP bandwidth is approximately 85% of wireless channel bandwidth, i.e., 17.85 Mbps IP on a 21 Mbps HSDPA channel). So it is not really overly ambitious to aim for 42 Mbps.

What worries me more is the "having provisioned at least 30 Mbps per site" statement in the article. If you assume three sectors per tower (site), and 21 Mbps per sector (shared between all users in that sector, of course), then they already start out with at 2:1 contention ratio just for the backhaul bandwidth on some of the sites. What that tells me is that they either do not expect many users at those sites, or they expect that those users will not be able to connect at the maximum rate supported by HSDPA so that the aggregate bandwidth is less than 21 Mbps per sector.
 
900 Mhz and 2100 Mhz = more bandwidth = more throughput

fvdbergh said:
The 42 Mbps will be the maximum capacity per 5 MHz channel, with SA operators typically using two channels per sector (one uplink, one downlink?). This capacity is shared between all users in that sector, roughly equally. So to achieve approximately 8 Mbps per user on a 21 Mbps-rated system, you can only support about two simultaneous users (IP bandwidth is approximately 85% of wireless channel bandwidth, i.e., 17.85 Mbps IP on a 21 Mbps HSDPA channel). So it is not really overly ambitious to aim for 42 Mbps.

What worries me more is the "having provisioned at least 30 Mbps per site" statement in the article. If you assume three sectors per tower (site), and 21 Mbps per sector (shared between all users in that sector, of course), then they already start out with at 2:1 contention ratio just for the backhaul bandwidth on some of the sites. What that tells me is that they either do not expect many users at those sites, or they expect that those users will not be able to connect at the maximum rate supported by HSDPA so that the aggregate bandwidth is less than 21 Mbps per sector.
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Cell C has access to both the 900 Mhz band and the 2100 Mhz band. More capacity where and when needed.
 
nowires said:
Cell C has access to both the 900 Mhz band and the 2100 Mhz band. More capacity where and when needed.
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Good point. But that only doubles your total capacity per sector. They could also start using more channels (5 MHz bands) per sector, but this will only work well if the distribution of users (say in a 30 km radius around the tower) is not uniform (which is probably the case). Even this strategy will probably only provide you with another doubling or quadrupling of capacity (since adjacent sectors will have to use different 5 MHz bands to avoid raising the noise floor in their neighbouring sectors). So that is 21 Mbps * 8 = 168 Mbps per sector, which will give about 20 users an 8 Mbps experience (ignoring IP overheads). I guess that does not sound too bad.

But as soon as the word gets out that you can get 8 Mbps on a Cell C data service in your area (and at a good price!), subscriptions will increase, and performance will degrade. This has been happening all over the world, and here in SA too with other operators.
 
Reddick added that they definitely have enough backhaul capacity to serve their base stations, having provisioned at least 30 Mbps per site. He said that the backhaul is supplied by a combination of the Cell C private network, Dark Fibre Africa, Neotel and Telkom.
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And you put your faith in THAT ?!?!?!? OMG...
 
Why is a service in PE even on here - it should be in the local PE town newspaper at most.
When will they do this in JHB, PTA etc.??!? Think small, deliver small...
 
The 3G service is on in gauteng, they just haven't launched yet because they need to optimize the network still. AFAIK PE is just the first city it launched in and another 2 will be launched in this month so if we get enough feedback, we might join sooner rather than later, if the feedback is good.
 
fvdbergh said:
Good point. But that only doubles your total capacity per sector. They could also start using more channels (5 MHz bands) per sector, but this will only work well if the distribution of users (say in a 30 km radius around the tower) is not uniform (which is probably the case). Even this strategy will probably only provide you with another doubling or quadrupling of capacity (since adjacent sectors will have to use different 5 MHz bands to avoid raising the noise floor in their neighbouring sectors). So that is 21 Mbps * 8 = 168 Mbps per sector, which will give about 20 users an 8 Mbps experience (ignoring IP overheads). I guess that does not sound too bad.

But as soon as the word gets out that you can get 8 Mbps on a Cell C data service in your area (and at a good price!), subscriptions will increase, and performance will degrade. This has been happening all over the world, and here in SA too with other operators.
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dude, with all do respect please go and re-read what ever it is that you picked up this WCDMA/HS knowledge from. It is not entirely correct and you are misleading other guys on the forum.if you want I can PM you some links as well which will hopefully set you straight.
 
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