Jump to content

An introduction to South African carriers

Azimuth

By Azimuth
in International Networks

 Share

Recommended Posts

Azimuth Member Level: 1x Advanced

Azimuth

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I thought I'd drop this here and not my base station thread since I can't get access to the BTS room.

 

In the grand scheme of things: macrocell, microcell, picocell...which is this?

 

amyra5u9.jpgI sit just below these ones. :) Dual omni antennas for MIMO?

 

a8eba5es.jpgThe contractors doing the installation in 2013. The antennas were inactive for 6 months. The dual antennas are placed regularly to maintain full signal strength.

 

rygy4ymy.jpgFiber being prepped.

 

7udyhyhy.jpgTons of the stuff.

 

9ydu3esy.jpgNote the not-so-visible warning label "no scrap value". This is because we have a rampant copper theft problem here. More often than not they cut the fiber too. :(

 

The hat antennas went live with FDD-LTE broadcast earlier this year. We now have full-signal LTE throughout the office, hallways, even the can. :P

 

y8etybup.jpgThis extended to the basement parkings not too long ago but predominantly for voice. I haven't really tested the 3G throughput down there.

 

a4avuje4.jpgI assume this is a signal amp of sorts.

 

e7e4e6ap.jpgVery neat install for a basement! Obviously there's nowhere to hide the cables.

 

u9azaqyt.jpgThis is now MTN's biggest LTE site on the African continent.

 

From outside:

 

rabarazu.jpg

 

2e2y4eve.jpg

 

uzuqase8.jpg

Taking a coffee break. :tu:

 

This is all pretty progressive for SA. An absolute pleasure to have LTE during the day because the 3G contention means it is completely unusable.

 

One typically gets 50Mbps+ all day long!

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Deval Member Level: LTE Advanced

Deval

Posted
Posted

When I first saw the DAS installation pictures, I swore someone was taking pictures of my office. We have a similar set up here with a MIMO LTE DAS carrying 1x (voice), EVDO, and LTE (both FDD and TDD).

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Deval Member Level: LTE Advanced

Deval

Posted
Posted

Quoted you Robert but moved it here.

 

We have a government deadline of 2018, I think, to reach certain milestones in broadband. There was a huge push a couple years ago where they were laying fiber in every damn street I drove in. It's such a pity I wasn't into cellular back then, or I would've taken a boat load of photos.

 

FTTH, MSANs and LTE are all that matters here now. The former two have nothing to do with cellular of course. The race is now last mile and LTE site upgrades (typically 30Mbps sites are upgraded to 100Mbps).

 

So tell me: is LTE that side for mobile phone use only? No "fixed broadband" home use like here where a LTE CPE is pushed in instead of an ADSL router?

 

Because of limits on data in terms of total usage, 90% of LTE is used for mobile phones, although some companies are trialing fixed broadband solutions, Sprint included.

 

A lot of businesses use LTE as backup for their fixed wireline connections for failover purposes, and some use LTE routers as primary for small offices or temporary locations.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
bigmachine Member Level: eHRPD

bigmachine

Posted
Posted

I recently traveled to South Africa for work.  I have to say I was very impressed by the coverage.  I was out in the middle of nowhere in KZN and still got great reception and data.

 

I brought my unlocked Sprint HTC One M7 and used a Vodacom SIM card.  It took me a few minutes to sort out the settings, but it was definitely cool to see something different than EVDO/EHRPD pop up on Signal Check Pro.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • large.unreadcontent.png.6ef00db54e758d06

  • gallery_1_23_9202.png

  • Similar Content

  • Posts

    • dkyeager
      Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

      By dkyeager · Posted

      Quote from wsj; "The T-Mobile deal could be reached as soon as later this month, while discussions with Verizon on a separate transaction are expected to take longer or might not result in an agreement, the people said." "The rising value of wireless licenses is a driving force behind the deal. U.S. Cellular’s spectrum portfolio touches 30 states and covers about 51 million people, according to regulatory filings." https://specmap.sequence-omega.net/
    • Paynefanbro
      Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

      By Paynefanbro · Posted

      From WSJ which is paywalled but they're reporting that T-Mobile and Verizon are working on a joint deal to buy and split up U.S. Cellular. https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/t-mobile-verizon-in-talks-to-carve-up-u-s-cellular-46d1e5e6?st=qwngrnh4s3bcr76 — — — — —  Summary from a user in the Reddit thread:  
    • topdownat4
      Keep a Word, Drop a Word #7

      By topdownat4 · Posted

      Kaiser Roll
    • iansltx
      Roaming experience in Japan

      By iansltx · Posted

      So, in summary, here are the options I tested: T-Mobile intl roaming - LTE on SoftBank, routes back to the US (~220ms to 4.2.2.4) IIJ physical SIM - LTE on NTT, local routing Airalo - LTE on SoftBank and KDDI (seems to prefer SoftBank), routed through Singapore (SingTel) Ubigi - 5G on NTT, routed through Singapore (Transatel) US Mobile East Asia roaming - 5G on SoftBank, routed through Singapore (Club SIM) Saily - 5G on NTT, routed through Hong Kong (Truphone)...seems to be poorer routing my1010 - LTE on SoftBank and KDDI (seems to prefer KDDI), routed through Taiwan (Chunghwa Telecom) I wouldn't buy up on the T-Mobile international roaming, but it's a solid fallback. If you have the US Mobile roaming eSIM that's a great option. Otherwise Ubigi, Airalo, or my1010 are all solid options, so get whatever's cheapest. I wouldn't bother trying to find a physical SIM from IIJ...the Japanese IP is nice but there's enough WiFi that you can get a Japanese IP enough for whatever you need, and eSIM flexibility is great (IIJ as eSIM but seems a bit more involved to get it to work).
    • iansltx
      Roaming experience in Japan

      By iansltx · Posted

      So, the rural part of the journey still has cell service for nearly all the way, usually on B18/19/8 (depending on whether we're talking about KDDI/NTT/SoftBank). I think I saw a bit of B28 and even n28 early on in the trip, though that faded out after a bit. Once we got to where we were going though, KDDI had enough B41 to pull 150+ Mbps, while NTT and SoftBank had B1/B3 IIRC. Cell service was likewise generally fine from Kawaguchiko Station to Tokyo on the express bus to Shinjuku Station, though there were some cases where only low-band LTE was available and capacity seemed to struggle. I also figured out what I was seeing with SoftBank on 40 MHz vs. 100 MHz n77: the 40 MHz blocks are actually inside the n78 band class, but SoftBank advertises them as n77, probably to facilitate NR CA. My phone likely preferred the 40 MHz slices as they're *much* lower-frequency, ~3.4 GHz rather than ~3.9, though of course I did see the 100 MHz slice being used rather often. By contrast, when I got NR on NTT it was either n28 10x10 or, more often, 100 MHz n78. As usual, EMEA bands on my S24 don't CA, so any data speeds I saw were the result of either one LTE carrier or one LTE carrier plus one NR carrier...except for B41 LTE. KDDI seems to have more B41 bandwidth live at this point, so my1010 or Airalo works well for this, and honestly while SoftBank and NTT 5G (in descending order of availability) have 5G that's readily available it may be diminishing returns, particularly given that I still don't know how to, as someone not from Hong Kong, get an eSIM that runs on SoftBank 5G that isn't the USM "comes for free with the unlimited premium package" roaming eSIM (NTT is easy enough thanks to Ubigi). In other news, I was able to borrow someone's Rakuten eSIM and...got LTE with it. 40 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 40ms latency to Tokyo while in Tokyo...which isn't any worse than the Japan-based physical SIMs I had used earlier. But not getting n77 or n257 was disappointing, though I had to test the eSIM from one spot rather than bouncing around the city to find somewhere with better reception. It's currently impossible to get a SIM as a foreigner that runs on Rakuten, so that was the best I could do. Also, I know my phone doesn't have all the LTE and 5G bands needed to take full advantage of Japanese networks. My S24 is missing: B21 (1500 MHz) - NTT B11 (1500 MHz) - KDDI, SoftBank B42 (3500 MHz) - NTT, KDDI, SoftBank n79 (4900 MHz) - NTT Of the above, B42/n79 are available on the latest iPhones, though you lose n257, and I'm guessing you're not going to find B11/B21 on a phone sold outside Japan.

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...