Tanzania : why internet users in Arusha are smiling

LTE (Long Term Evolution) also known as 4G LTE enables ultra-high-speed internet access because it is the cutting-edge fourth-generation (4G) mobile technology standard and represents a step change in evolution from existing wireless technologies such as GSM-2G/GPRS/EDGE and UMTS-3G/3.75G.

4G LTE is the future platform of all online as well as voice and data communication, and its inherently flexible and constantly evolving nature guarantees that it will remain the superior standard in mobile data and voice services for years to come.

“Smile launched in Dar es Salaam on May 16 2013, making Tanzania the first country in Africa to access this revolutionary technology. We are very excited about bringing this technology to Arusha. As a notable international hub that has vast, thriving and dynamic service and tourism sectors and a range of learning institutions, Arusha has so many businesses, organisations and people that will benefit from high speed internet,” said Fiona McGloin, Smile Country Manager for Tanzania and Uganda.

“We at Smile are confident that providing reliable, high speed internet will significantly contribute to the success of Arusha based businesses and also give the people in Arusha a faster, more reliable and cost effective service,” McGloin said.

In Tanzania’s vibrant communications sector, 4G LTE internet now leads the race being six-times faster than 3G and four-times faster than 3.75G. Smile provides an average speed of 6Mbps download and 3Mbps upload.

source: www.itnewsafrica.com

cellcomm launches tower of justice

The company named by the National Excellence Award as the best GSM Company in Liberia - Cellcom Telecommunications, Inc., has once more demonstrated its long standing goal to provide affordable and quality telecommunications to all Liberians.

Over the course of the past month, Cellcom erected and began operating a new tower in Konobo District, Grand Gedeh County, through an innovative partnership with the US based health group Tiyatian Health.

Through the partnership, which is endorsed by the Clinton Global Initiative, the new tower will allow frontline health workers of Tiyatian Health to use mobile telecommunications devices to provide lifesaving health care to thousands of mothers in very remote parts of Grand Gedeh County.

The tower is also the first telecommunications network in the area for close to a decade and is providing much needed communications service to thousands of residents who have been cut off from the rest of Liberia and the world.

Making the announcement at a joint press conference held at the Cellcom Headquarters in Monrovia executives from Cellcom and Tiyatian termed the venture "a tower of justice" and referred to the partnership as a "golden triangle" because it brought together a private company, a civil society NGO and the Government.

Tiyatian Health Executive Director, Dr. Raj Panjabi, reflected that many deaths had happened in Konobo because front line workers had no way to communicate with referral hospitals to call for doctors or ambulances.

He noted that with the establishment of the new tower, mothers and their children would no longer have to die because of the lack of communications.

He noted the challenges of getting this project off the ground, "the challenge was huge... .this was not a place that was a natural place for a Telecom company to go to.

It took courage and it took risk to go there. And Cellcom, under Avishai Marziano's leadership and the leadership of the executive team, really stepped up in trying to help solve this gap.

source: allafrica.com

telecoms industry an investment haven

The Broadband Commission (a joint initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) postulates that the Internet and other Information Communications Technology (ICT) platforms now constitute critical modern resources and are vital prerequisites for participation in today’s growing digital economy.

Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman of NCC, had said the contribution of the Information and Communication Technology sector to the GDP was anticipated to rise to about 15 percent by 2015. He said this would be achieved by the government’s structured investment and regulatory intervention.

Since the introduction of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in Nigeria, it has significantly impacted the economy in a variety of ways, enhanced personal and corporate communications and generally improved the quality of life across the country.

Nigeria’s teledensity

Latest data by regulator of the nation’s telecommunications industry says tele-density has increased from less than 63.11 percent by end of year 2010 to 85.25 percent in June 2013, which represents a 22.14 percent increase. In addition, active mobile subscriptions in Nigeria has grown to over 120 million in the last 12 years.

Teledensity is the percentage of connected lines in relation to the population in a given period of time, and its growth is proportional to the growth in telephone subscriber base.

The Commission said active telecoms subscriber base in the country peaked at 114.1 million as at the end of January 2013, an increase of 18.3 million lines or 19.1 percent, compared with the figure in the correspondent period of last year. According to the NCC, in 2012, the industry ended the year with combined subscriber base of 113.1 million up from 95.8 million in January, 2012.

Highlights of the latest industry data also reveals that telecoms firms continue to spend more on network upgrades to accommodate more subscribers and reduce teething challenges associated with quality of service.

Growing FDI

New Pyramid Research Report on Nigeria taking a five-year look at the country’s communications sector believes the fast-paced growth and the huge population, which exceeds 170.1million, will continue to make the country one of the most attractive markets in Africa and the Middle East.

The study, ‘Pyramid Perspective 2013: Top Trends in the Global Communications Industry’ provides information on top trends in telecoms landscape in Africa and Middle East (AME), Asian Pacific, Europe and Americas.

According to the study, eco nomic growth in emerging markets is expected to nearly quadruple the economic growth in developed markets. Telecom service revenue in emerging markets will increase five times faster than in developed markets.

The report sees massive growth and opportunities in the country’s telecom sector, particularly with the 2012 end subscription base of 113.1 million, which places Nigeria ahead of Egypt’s 95.5 million; and South Africa’s 71.8 million. Giving credence to the report’s assertion, the latest data published by the NCC puts the telecom subscriber base at over 120 million.

source: businesstodayonline.com

WIFI technology

WIMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperatibility for internet access. It is a wireless communication standards designed to provide data rates of 30-40 mbps. For  fixed  stations providing a speed of 1gbps. Mobile wimax was a replacement to GSM and CDMA in order to increase  the capacity.

The name WIMAX was created by Wimax forum. This forum describes Wimax as a standards based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access which provide an alternative to cable and DSL. Wimax is sometimes referred as “Wi-FI on steroids” and can be used for a number of applications including broadband connections, cellular backhaul, hotspots etc. This technology is similar to WI-FI , but it can enable usage at much greater distances. It is suitable in providing portable mobile broadband connectivity across cities and countries through a varity of devices. It provides a wireless alternative to cable and digital subscribers line for last mile broadband access. It provides data, VOIP, IPTV services. Wimax provides low costs associated with the deployment of a wimax network in comparison to 3G, HSDPA, it is now economically viable to provide last mile broadband internet access in remote locations.

In North America backhaul for urban operations is typically provided via one or more copper wire line connections, where as remote cellular operations are sometimes backhauled via satellite.Wimax has more substantial backhaul bandwidth requirements than legacy cellular applications. Wimax in this application competes with microwave, E-line and simple extension of the fiber network itself. Wimax directly supports the technologies that make triple play  service offering quality of service and multicasting. The cable companies will provide media services to other partners while gaining access to the wireless network as a mobile virtual network operator to provide triple play services. Devices that provide connectivity to a wimax network are known as subscribers stations. Portable units include handsets, PC peripherals and embeded devices in laptops which are now available for wifi services.

the IP multimedia subsystem

The IP Multimedia Subsystem or IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (IMS) is an architectural framework for delivering IP multimedia services. It was originally designed by the wireless standards body 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), as a part of the vision for evolving mobile networks beyond GSM. Its original formulation (3GPP Rel-5) represented an approach to delivering "Internet services" over GPRS. This vision was later updated by 3GPP, 3GPP2 and ETSI TISPAN by requiring support of networks other than GPRS, such as Wireless LAN, CDMA2000 and fixed lines.

IMS was originally defined by an industry forum called 3 G. IP formed in 1999. 3G ip developed the initial IMS architecture which was brought to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), as part of their standardization work for 3G mobile phone systems in UMTSnetworks. It first appeared in Release 5 (evolution from 2G to 3G networks), when SIP-based multimedia was added. Support for the older GSM and GPRS networks was also provided.

·         3GPP2 (a different organization from 3GPP) based their CDMA2000 Multimedia Domain (MMD) on 3GPP IMS, adding support forCDMA 2000.

·         3GPP release 6 added interworking with WLAN, inter-operability between IMS using different IP-connectivity networks, routing group identities, multiple registration and forking, presence, speech recognition and speech-enabled services (Push to talk).

·         3GPP release 7 added support for fixed networks by working together with TISPAN release R1.1, the function of AGCF (access gateway control function) and PES (PSTN emulation service) are introduced to the wire-line network for the sake of inheritance of services which can be provided in PSTN network. AGCF works as a bridge interconnecting the IMS networks and the Megaco/H.248 networks. Megaco/H.248 networks offers the possibility to connect terminals of the old legacy networks to the new generation of networks based on IP networks. AGCF acts a SIP User agent towards the IMS and performs the role of P-CSCF. SIP User Agent functionality is included in the AGCF, and not on the customer device but in the network itself.

universal mobile telecommunications systems

 UMTS is an umbrella term for the third generation radio technologies developed within 3GPP.

The radio access specifications provide for Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) variants, and several chip rates are provided for in the TDD option, allowing UTRA technology to operate in a wide range of bands and co-exist with other radio access technologies.

UMTS includes the original W-CDMA scheme using paired or unpaired 5 MHz wide channels in globally agreed bandwidth around 2 GHz, though subsequently, further bandwidth has been allocated by the ITU on a regional basis.

                                                              

W-CDMA was specified in Release 99 and Release 4 of the specifications. High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) was introduced in Releases 5 (Downlink) and 6 (Uplink) giving substantially greater bit rates and improving packet-switched applications.

UMTS is not just about radio: the radio access network connects to the core network which is an evolution from the GSM core. 3GPP has expanded its capabilities, in principle allowing most services to be delivered over either 2G GERAN (GSM/EDGE) or 3G UTRAN.

The core network is becoming progressively access-agnostic, allowing home base stations serving pica-cells to connect directly to the core network via subscribers’ ASDL lines.

3GPP is now working on Long Term Evolution (LTE), which will build on UMTS, as the Industry looks beyond 3G.

Just as GSM has become synonymous with the whole mobile system for 2G, UMTS is 3G, which includes the whole of the W-CDMA and HSPA specifications catalogue.