Investment in 4G vs. Coverage - serious question (not a troll)

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › Investment in 4G vs. Coverage - serious question (not a troll)

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#803793 22-Apr-2013 16:56

BlueShift:
NzBeagle:
graemeh: Perhaps they put the coverage in for when people are stuck in a jam and they want to ring to say they are delayed :)

I would've said it was more to do with people dropping calls, handsfree of course, while going through the tunnel?

Because Cellphone Network Engineers have their own carparks, so don't take the trains?

Or because they all live in Auckland and therefore don't know trains exist?

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#803794 22-Apr-2013 16:58

Firebreaker:
aros71: So it seems the race is on to build 4G networks now, which is good because everyone needs more bandwidth, right?

Wait a second... I have a Galaxy S3 and over my 3G connection, I can stream music, watch YouTube videos, tether to my laptop and Teamviewer to my office PC fullscreen with little to no lag. Where I have coverage, that is.

Remind me why I need 4G again?

Tell you what I would like though. Some coverage at Castlepoint, my favourite holiday spot. Among others.

If my mobile provider said "You have a choice: more coverage outside the cities, or 4G in the city, which would you prefer?" - I'd choose the coverage.

Are we investing in 4G because there's a need for it? Or just to keep up with overseas with their higher population density and less mountainous terrains?

Just a thought...

With this mentality we would be in the stone age. We don't "need" anything.

I hope Vodafone will deploy DC LTE as soon as it is possible to advance tech.

Show me a commercial device in the market that supports LTE advanced? Only one live network in the world and no devices as of 4 weeks back

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#803802 22-Apr-2013 17:05

johnr:
Firebreaker:
aros71: So it seems the race is on to build 4G networks now, which is good because everyone needs more bandwidth, right?

Wait a second... I have a Galaxy S3 and over my 3G connection, I can stream music, watch YouTube videos, tether to my laptop and Teamviewer to my office PC fullscreen with little to no lag. Where I have coverage, that is.

Remind me why I need 4G again?

Tell you what I would like though. Some coverage at Castlepoint, my favourite holiday spot. Among others.

If my mobile provider said "You have a choice: more coverage outside the cities, or 4G in the city, which would you prefer?" - I'd choose the coverage.

Are we investing in 4G because there's a need for it? Or just to keep up with overseas with their higher population density and less mountainous terrains?

Just a thought...

With this mentality we would be in the stone age. We don't "need" anything.

I hope Vodafone will deploy DC LTE as soon as it is possible to advance tech.

Show me a commercial device in the market that supports LTE advanced? Only one live network in the world and no devices as of 4 weeks back

I said as soon as it's possible. I'm not saying we have a device with DC LTE right now.

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#803803 22-Apr-2013 17:06

It's not called DC for LTE only 3G DC

Firebreaker

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#803805 22-Apr-2013 17:08

johnr: It's not called DC for LTE only 3G DC

Ahh ok. I was just trying to imply because the OP is fine with 3G doesn't mean tech shouldn't advance.

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#803807 22-Apr-2013 17:10

Firebreaker:
johnr: It's not called DC for LTE only 3G DC

Ahh ok. I was just trying to imply because the OP is fine with 3G doesn't mean tech shouldn't advance.

Agree with you 100%

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#803814 22-Apr-2013 17:27

billgates:
sbiddle: Simple answer

3G is inherently a circuit switched based technology with IP in many ways being a bolt on.

4G is a fully IP based.

Yes 3G may seem fine for data but it's a limited technology in mansy ways - packet loss due to HSPA+ hard handovers is one classic example. Speed isn't the key feature of 4G, it's all about capacity and capability.

Does that mean that VOIP calls like Skype/SIP based one's over 4G will be crystal clear and there will be no loss in quality or calls will not drop during handovers from tower to tower when traveling providing you are always in 4G coverage?

Possibly. It depeneds what sort of QoS was on the network.

Voice on LTE networks will use VoLTE which is an IMS (VoIP) solution, this will be obviously have guaranteed QoS.

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graemeh

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#803878 22-Apr-2013 19:29

nickb800:
BlueShift:
NzBeagle:
graemeh: Perhaps they put the coverage in for when people are stuck in a jam and they want to ring to say they are delayed :)

I would've said it was more to do with people dropping calls, handsfree of course, while going through the tunnel?

Because Cellphone Network Engineers have their own carparks, so don't take the trains?

Or because they all live in Auckland and therefore don't know trains exist?

Auckland has trains too.

The cellphone reception on the trains up here is rubbish, probably because the engineers have carparks :D

eXDee

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#803903 22-Apr-2013 20:18

No one seems to have pointed out to the OP that the 700mhz spectrum thatll become our future 4G band is a lower frequency than the 850/900 we have atm, and so will therefore travel further and have better object penetration too. Once VoLTE is in place i imagine this will be quite useful for NZ. Not sure how much difference the ~100-200mhz drop in frequency makes to this, but with the taller RBI towers and the new transmission equipment i imagine it all adds up

1800 is also lower than 2100 so perhaps we'll see better building penetration of urban 4G frequency used for the higher capacity.
I imagine this frequency drop does make a difference, because from reading about 2600mhz its next to useless inside buildings due to its poor object penetration.

Just throwing in some ideas in there - can johnr confirm?

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#803904 22-Apr-2013 20:23

A lower frequency that travels further isn't a good thing from all angles. While it improves inbuilding coverage it also makes building networks far more complex because signals do travel further, which increases noise in a network. At the end of the day noise floor is the single biggest problem facing any wireless network.

The future of WiFi for example is 60GHz, for the reason that it will only work in the room where the AP is.

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#803969 22-Apr-2013 22:11

graemeh:
nickb800:
BlueShift:
NzBeagle:
graemeh: Perhaps they put the coverage in for when people are stuck in a jam and they want to ring to say they are delayed :)

I would've said it was more to do with people dropping calls, handsfree of course, while going through the tunnel?

Because Cellphone Network Engineers have their own carparks, so don't take the trains?

Or because they all live in Auckland and therefore don't know trains exist?

Auckland has trains too.

The cellphone reception on the trains up here is rubbish, probably because the engineers have carparks :D

No, he catches the bus; that's why no need for coverage on Auckland trains.

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#804051 23-Apr-2013 07:48

I really hope the 4G coverage in NZ will expand. I am coming from Norway and here we have HD Voice and 4G networks now. In my neighbourhood I can enjoy 30 Mbis/s down and 20 Mbit/s up.

Bandwidth is something you can never get enough of, and the HD-voice feature is sweet as.

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#804100 23-Apr-2013 09:24

In answer to the question I would like to see coverage over technology. I travel around a bit and there are quite a few areas even in some towns (say at one end) there little or no data access.

Having said that, if LTE is to provide a uniform speed of say 100DL/50UL and will work out in the country, then perhaps there is hope for me seeing real time DVB-H free to air broadcasts that don't eat into my data cap one day :)

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sbiddle

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#804106 23-Apr-2013 09:27

TwoSeven: In answer to the question I would like to see coverage over technology. I travel around a bit and there are quite a few areas even in some towns (say at one end) there little or no data access.

Having said that, if LTE is to provide a uniform speed of say 100DL/50UL and will work out in the country, then perhaps there is hope for me seeing real time DVB-H free to air broadcasts that don't eat into my data cap one day :)

DVB-H is a totally different technology - it has nothing to do with 3G or 4G.

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#804238 23-Apr-2013 12:29

sbiddle:
TwoSeven: In answer to the question I would like to see coverage over technology. I travel around a bit and there are quite a few areas even in some towns (say at one end) there little or no data access.

Having said that, if LTE is to provide a uniform speed of say 100DL/50UL and will work out in the country, then perhaps there is hope for me seeing real time DVB-H free to air broadcasts that don't eat into my data cap one day :)

DVB-H is a totally different technology - it has nothing to do with 3G or 4G.

The point had nothing to do with technology, it was a reference to service delivery - mobile TV. LTE in theory should allow for an appropriate equiv.

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