3g signals on handsets

8/11/2019 3G Signals on Handsets

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3G signals on handsets, real or deception? II

From: Ghana|Adomonline|Nii Narku Dowuona Published On : Aug 18, 2014 2

A typical 3G speed test in real life


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This is the second part of the article on whether the data reception signs such as E, H, H+ and3G which show on smartphones really reflect the actual customer experience, in terms ofbrowsing, streaming, download and upload speeds; as well as what the service providers coverage is in the location one finds himself at any point in time.

Minimum 3G Speeds

Maximus asks another very important question; what is the minimum 3G speed by globalstandards? One would expect that since 3G promises great customer experience, thatexperience should be measured, and that measurement should at least have estimated upperand lower limits. But telcos often display the possible highest speed one could get on a 3Gdevice, all things being equal, but stay clear of what could be the lowest speed.

If customers could be assured of what the lowest 3G speed was, and that speed is better thanthe best speed on the 2G range in real life, the anxiety would be reduced. But the telcos areunable to assure customers of that. At least two telcos are advertising 3.75G in Ghana, and thefour others advertise between 3G and 3.5G. Each has sold devices promising practicallyimpossible maximum speeds. But none is bold enough to talk about minimum speeds.

Indeed, the truth is, beyond what 3G technology promises, in terms of speeds, the robustnessof the telcos own network plays a major role in what the final end users experience would be.3G HSPA+, for instance, can go all the way up to 43Mbps but if the network of the telco onwhich the 3G technology runs, is not robust enough to ensure wide and reliable coverage,enough bandwidth capacity, seamless handover between cell sites and other things, thatnetwork can hardly maximize the potential of the 3G technology. This is how one telecom

executive puts it; you have not seen even half of the real potential of your smartphonebecause the existing telcos have not been able to deliver on the full potential of the 3Gtechnology to you.

3G Spectrum

The fact is, the whole concept of 3G vary from continent to continent. What is 3G in USA forinstance, maybe 2.5G in Europe, and what is now termed 3.75G in Africa may actually be basic3G elsewhere. Firstly, the spectrum band on which 3G technology is built, vary from continentto continent and even from country to country. And the kind of 3G technology built on thosevaried spectrum bands also vary so the end user or the last mile experiences also vary.

In Ghana, the 3G UMTS technologies for the five GSM operators are built on 2100MHzspectrum bands, which is in line with what pertains in most parts of Europe, while that of thesole CDMA player, Expresso is built on an 850MHz spectrum as pertains in the USA. And therobustness of the technologies depends entirely on the respective telco. And as mentioned


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earlier in this article, the actual customer experience on 3G is also affected by many otherfactors beyond the control of any individual telco.

Indeed the five GSM players in Ghana run 2G GSM, 2G GPRS and 2.75G EDGE on 900-1800MHzspectrum, while the 3G UMTS with some upgrades such as HSDPA (high speed downlink packet

access) are on the 2100MHz band as stated above. But Expresso has since its inception beenrunning 2G CDMA on the 850MHz spectrum band; and when Ghana went 3G, Expresso did notneed an upgrade because that band met US standards for 3G (CDMA200 1X and EVDO Rev A),which they run now on same spectrum band.

It is also important to note that affordability is not always the best. Telcos do promos whichrequire customers to dial a particular short code and opt for packages that offer lower data andor voice tariffs. Industry experts say the short code is usually the entry point into a pool ofnumbers which are packed into a small space [in lay mans language] than where those payingthe default rates are placed. In effect those who opt for the lower promo tariffs are segmentedinto a congested space where data and voice experience is of a lesser quality than what thosepaying the default rates enjoy. No particular telecom promo would be pointed out but insidersat some of the 3G telcos confirmed this is the case. Obviously, that also affects the actual enduser experience, in spite of what the reception signal on the handset may say.

Again, during peak hours for voice communication on a particular day, the telcos are said tomove some of the data capacity to augment that of voice so it can accommodate the voicecommunication load during that period. This, according to experts, also affect data experience,particularly during periods of the day the telcos experience huge voice communication. Andvery often the capacity is borrowed from what is available to customers on low tariff package.

4G LTE soon

But currently, the three 4G LTE (Long-term Evolution) operators, Blu Telecoms, Surfline Ghanaand Goldkey Telecoms are gearing up to launch. Surfline has completed a test run and is set togo commercial this week. Blu is still texting its network and devices in selected locations in thenational capital. Unfortunately, none of the three is going to offer voice services anytime soon,as per their licensing requirements. By the way it important to point out that the 4G spectrumband in Ghana is 2500MHz-2690MHz, which is higher than that of several countries across theworld. But the efficiency of the 4G networks in Ghana would also depend on the robustness ofthe networks of the service providers.

Their Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licenses say they each need to cover 60% of all districtcapitals in the country with cell sites and data service under five years of starting operations.They were licensed in June 2013 and they each had 18 months to start operations, which endsin November this year. Any one of the 4G LTE operators, which is able to meet its coveragetarget any time within the given period would be free to offer voice services. That would mean


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Ghanaians would have real 4G reception on their handsets, provided the handset is 4Gcompliant. This would not be the deceptive 3.75G being interpreted by a handset as 4G.

When that time comes, would the 3.75G signals of the current GSM operators still be reading4G, even though they do not have 4G service what would be the regulatory position on that?

And would the 3G range of signals (i.e. H, H+ and 3G) still be just signals which do notcorrespond to actual customer experience as it is today, or the experience would becompetitive? Would the 4G service providers also have similar challenges with the many otherfactors that affect the service quality of the 3G operators?

An official of one of the 4G LTE operators argued that 4G is purely VOIP (voice over internetprotocol) so if the operators start voice services in the future, they will not face the challengesthe GSM guys face with having to move capacity around and shortchange certain customerswhenever there is heavy voice or data consumption.

It is also important to note that Ghana is looking forward to harvesting 700MHz of highfrequency spectrum as digital dividend from the transition from analogue TV technology tothe digital terrestrial television (DTT). When that happens later this year, the harvestedspectrum would be available for 4G LTE service, according to experts. And that would help toboost the service quality of traditional 3G operators, who face extinction if the 4G guys get veryaggressive. Already, the tests being run by the 4G LTE players are getting very great reviewsfrom customers.

4G LTE is here, and things can only get better in terms of cost and quality of data experience forthe Ghanaian consumer in the near future. But until then, Maximus, Godwin, Jerry, Bob, Frank,Rasell, you and the millions of Ghanaian smartphone users may have to live with the E, H, H+,

3G and 4G reception signals which are not really what they pretend to be.

And it is important to note that in theory, 4G and 4G LTE look good, but to the extent thattechnology keeps evolving and the technology world has already started talking about 5G,consumers should be weary of the PR narrative and promises from the 4G players. The 4G/4GLTE technology promises to solve all of the consumer experience challenges on 3G, just like 3Gpromised to solve all of the challenges with 2G. But 4G may also come with its own lingeringfrustrations, which would then warrant 5G or something higher and better.

Ghanaian LTE Licensee Blu Telecoms to be consumer advocate


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One of Ghanas 4G LTE licensees, Blu Telecoms is gearing up to start operations laterthis year, and the company says it would use an unusual consumer advocacy strategyto penetrate a market where most players are not trusted by consumers.

Chief Commercial Officer of Blu Telecoms, Tara Squir e told Adom Business we are

fully aware that in this market the consumers do not trust the telcos and so our strategywould be to combine our commercial business with consumer advocacy and maintaincustomers trust.

Blu Telecoms (former G-Kwiknet), was one of three Ghanaian companies givenBroadband Wireless Access (BWA) licenses in June 2013 at the cost of US$6millioneach, to start 4G LTE or WiMax services in Ghana. The other two are Surfline Telecomsand Goldkey Telecoms.

All have 18 months, ending November 2014, to launch or face sanctions. The licenselimits them to providing data services for starters, and to cover 50% of all districts in thecountry in fives, after which they can provide voice services and compete with the sixothers already in the voice space.

So in essence there are nine telecom operators in Ghana now, except that three 4GLTE licensees are limited to only data services for now.

Out of the three, only Surfline has announced it would launch first quarter of this year.The other two have been on the quite since they got the license.

But the Blu Telecom CCO said the company is fast gearing up to the launch later thisyear, and it is sure when it launches it will be the telecom operator of choice in the dataspace because its strategy would make it an advocate of the consumer rather than acompany here to milk consumers.

We know what consumers pay for data on the 3G networks currently and we plan onkeeping our tariffs at that level even though we will be giving them way better customerexperience and faster internet speeds, he said.

Preparations

Squire said beyond paying US$6million for the license, the company is spending tens ofmillions of dollar on the basic components of a telco, being a data centre, billing systemand distribution network (masts).

He said: We are almost done with the data centre with Huawei as the network partner weve just signed on a company called Alepo as a billing partners and we have togetherstarted building the billing system; and we have already built the first few towers in partsof Accra. There are a few things on the content side that are not crystallized yet, butonce they are we will get partners for those also.


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The Blu Telecom CCO said because the plan is to be a consumer advocate and providethe consumer with the best of experience, the company intends to rollout in phases andto own every zone/location it enters into as it goes along.

We are therefore working with various mast vendors within the various zones to ensure

our customers within ev ery location get the best experience possible, Squire added. Blu Telecoms is currently testing its SIM cards and how the various networkcomponents interact with each other. But that is all being done internally; nothing hasbeen externalized yet.

But Squire is confident that the company is building a very reliable network to back itsconsumer advocacy strategy, which will be hinged on providing great customerexperience.

He believes Blu also has the best team of personal in the industry to deliver on thepromise of great customer experience.

All three 4G LTE players would have numbers beginning with 025, and the difference intheir numbers would begin with the fourth number. Blu Telecoms was allocated0250XXXXXX numbers.

Opportunities

Squire noted that Ghanaian telecoms market is a very competitive one, but much of thecompetition is in the voice space, while there exist a big opportunity in the data space.

Internet penetration is estimated at about 20% in Ghana and the telecom operators

subscriber base figures show only 35% of phone users do data and the numbers keepdwindling.

This, Squire believes presents a big opportunity for LTE players like Blu, but he wasquick to point out that the Ghanaian market is not going to be a walk over for Blu or forany of the other LTE players for that matter.

Internet drive in this country is not going to be easy and we believe providing 4G LTEwill not necessarily make any difference without showing people what to do with theinternet. That is why our strategy is to get close to the customers, educate them andalso be their advocate, he said.

Doubts about devices

Pundits have said Ghana is not ready for 4G LTE because there is only about one percent of 4G LTE devices penetration in Ghana.

But Squire argued that those who think LTE has come to Ghana too early, are focusingon mobile voice penetration, but Blu would focus on providing reliable internet service


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on modems, mi-fi and other channels rather than pushing customers to go acquire 4GLTE handsets and tablets.

We have also talked with Huawei about devices with which we deliver service tocustomers when the time comes, he said.

He noted that Blu noticed that Ghanaians have not had the opportunity to experiencethe full spectrum of services on the internet because of the level of speeds andrelatively high cost of accessing the internet, adding that Blu intend to empowerGhanaians to do more shopping, watch video and TV online at very affordable rates.

Even though all the LTE players have the opportunity to do voice in the next five years,Squire said voice is not on the table for Blu Telecom any time soon, adding that even ifthe company decides to do voice sometime in the future, it would be to provide morevalue to customer and not just to get more customers.

He however assured prospective customers that even though the company is beginningwith data service, its SIM cards would be 'voice ready' for activation when it becomenecessary.

Blu Telecoms is wholly owned and wholly management by Ghanaians. It is owned byJoseph K. Horgle and the the management comprise of Emmanuel Collison CEO,Tara Squire - CCO, Samson Narteh-Yeo Chief Finance Officer, Ekow Thompson Chief Technical Officer, and Prosper Harrison Addo - Head of Legal & Corporate Affairs.

3g signals on handsets

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