160 Mbps LTE site goes live

Does anyone know what links run to the cell towers? Will they be able to handle 20+ 160Mbs users?
 
oober said:
Does anyone know what links run to the cell towers? Will they be able to handle 20+ 160Mbs users?
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That shouldn't be an issue.

I'm guessing 160Mbps is the max (shared) throughput for a single sector, of which there are usually 3 on a base station. So its just 160 x 3 = 480Mbps aggregate throughtput for the BTS, won't even make a 1 Gbps fibre backhaul link sweat.
 
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In Sweden FTTX (Fibre to the premise) is commonplace which means that cellphone backhaul should typically also be fibre. In more remote areas one may see microwave backhaul, but then I don't expect you will see 160 Mbps speeds there...

One thing is for certain - they will not use multiple 2 Mbps E1 links ;)
 
Article makes mention of LTE bringing down costs. Don't really feel to optimistic about that situation transpiring here...
 
160Mbps on mobile. nice. and here we sit with 4Mbps on wire and recently a whopping 7.2Mbps on mobile.

We should see LTE coming out here when they phase it out in Sweden and Telkom can buy the old equipment from them.
 
remember u kinda need handsets too.. which takes some time to come out
 
We will get it, but only once the mobile operators complete more of their fibre rings. It's a backhaul issue, but once that is in place, a simple upgrade is required. Also, we need more LTE handsets and dongles on the market before it will be economical.

That said, who the hell wants 160Mbps max speeds when you are charged R200 a GB or > R1 out of bundle!
 
Adie said:
No, I'm honestly. I think we have enough intelligent people to make this happen. Just because we're a third world country I don't think it means we need to sit back and watch Europe develope the tech we're just going to have to pay them to use.
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In SA we do the absolute minimum and charge the absolute maximum to get the highest possible profits.

C'mon, you should know this by now.
 
Adie said:
And why did this not happen in South Africa? What makes us so different?
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Vodacom was one of the very first 3G network globally. So, yes, it could have been here. Our biggest problem is the backhaul capacity.

3G networks can deliver a theoretical 42Mbps downlink and 22Mbps uplink using HSPA+.
 
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