3.6 Mbps HSDPA available ‘soon’

ShaunSA said:
Nope. 2020 is imminent. 2100 is soon :D
Click to expand...
:D I think we need a new definition for these terms...

I do however think there is a race between Vodacom and MTN - simply a matter of a lack of backhaul capacity.
 
Good news.

Thus not going the ADSL route.
 
It's a real gamble settling on a broadband connection. I'm 'stuck' with HSDPA for two years. Hope it pays off
 
Nice to know Vodacom and MTN are planning on 'keeping up' with international standards. Boasting rights are important when it comes to marketing and advertising.

However, is there any indication on either MTN or Vodacom completing their coverage area for basic 3G, 1.8mbps HSDPA? I would love to be able to keep a stable 3G connection at my home instead of picking up a signal every now and then and have it drop completely without the need to spend R800 - R900 on an external antenna and cellphone coupler.

Perhaps it's because I am forced to be without any viable choices unless I move to a new location, but it seems more important to me to first get the basics right and improve backhaul capacity for everyone before launching faster services for select 'lucky' customer able to get the most of the technology.

Still, any progress should be encouraged. Maybe one year it'll be of benefit to more people.
 
The Vodacom 3G network is being extended as fast as possible and not just in the larger centers. We're trying to cover smaller towns as well. Some of the 'smaller' 3G sites, around Cape Town, I saw going live in December included:

Malmesbury
Swellendam
Bettys Bay
Rawsonville
Kleinmond
Gansbaai
Robertson
Caledon
Riversdale
Ceres
Vredendal
Vredenburg
Struisbaai East

Not sure of the total number of 3G towers at the moment, but it counts in the thousands. It's a slow, but continuous process. Took many years to build the 2G network and the 3G network requires many more towers to give the same coverage.

Vodacom does not make a distinction between 384, 1800 and 3600 (or higher ;)) sites, i.e. all 3G sites are on the highest speed. Obviously this places extra load on backhaul capacity and this will be reflected in the access speed seen.

I've been using 3.6 since the whole radio network went live with 3.6 last year July and typically see speeds of about 2.5Mb/s. Obviously dependent on the backhaul of the tower I'm on. Best seen was just over 3Mb/s.

BTW, 'soon' should be 'pretty soon' ;)
 
For some reason my previous post didn't post so I've changed it a bit.

I've had peaks of around 2Mb/s the other night. Could probably be that the tower I am on only has 2Mb/s. It's good to see services launched without making the usual noise in anticipation for it (ala Goal), and then just let the network do what it is capable of. As faster speeds become available word of mouth will attract new customers there would otherwise not be. I also saw about twice the signal strenght yesterday and faster speeds so hopefully there's a new 3G tower that went up, but it seems to be gone again today.

I'm still not too excited about 3.6Mb as the network typically can't achieve even 1.8Mb. The other 101 networks also have better pricing in general and until it is more affordable than the current rate of R195.50 per GB it won't be of much use anyway. Hope to see better pricing in 2008.
 
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yet again telkom is to blame, all this new found speed does not help if the costs are sky high.
 
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