Vodacom to offer 14Mbit/s 3G service, HSPA+

Added by Editor on 2 February 2010.
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Pieter Uys

Vodacom will double the speed of its 3G network in time for the World Cup, offering download speeds of up to 14,4Mbit/s from its 3G-enabled base stations by June.

That’s the word from Vodacom Group CEO Pieter Uys, who was speaking to journalists following the release of the cellular group’s financial results for the three months ended 31 December 2009.

However, Uys has cautioned that not all the backhaul transmission links to the group’s base stations — these are the links that connect its cellular towers to its core network — will be in place in time to deliver the maximum speeds possible. He says increasing the speed of these backhaul links is a top priority for the operator.

Meanwhile, the group has also built a trial next-generation 3G enhanced high-speed packet access (HSPA+) network at its campus in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, capable of download speeds of as much as 21,1Mbit/s. Uys says this is the first HSPA+ network to be switched on in Africa. Only one HSPA+ base station has been switched on so far.

Vodacom says it will build HSPA+ base stations at soccer stadiums and other places that will be frequented by international tourists during the World Cup.

This is clearly a preemptive marketing strike against smaller rival Cell C, which is spending billions of rand building an HSPA+ network and recently awarded a R2,9bn to China’s ZTE for the first phase of the network’s construction.  — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral

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  • bob

    Great, so now I can eat through the MASSIVE 250MB bundle on my iPhone contract just that little bit faster. joy.

    Vodacom, keep your 14.4Mbits and give me a higher data cap instead. You know, like they do everywhere else in the world…

  • http://dreamfoundry.co.za Diaan Mynhardt

    What does speed matter, Mr Uys, when your per-gig cost stays sky high? Not much in my books.

  • Bob the Builder

    Right now the 7.2mbps network is running mostly at GPRS (48kbps) and EDGE ( 225kbps) speeds, so lifting the theoretical maximum from 7200kbps to 14400kbps means nothing.
    Some customers are fooled by this maximum theoretical speed arms race, but practically the user experience on average is very poor and yielding speeds 1/100th of what is being touted.

  • Thato

    they can upgrade the towers as much as they like – but there are two factors which worry/bug me:
    1. the uptake of broadband internet is still a problem, very few people have the necessary tools to make use of True Broadband.
    2. The backhaul links in the metropolitan areas are congested and we need to unbundle the local loop for both ADSL and wireless providers to start experiencing true broaband

  • Chris

    Bob the builders has it 100% correct! They tell us, 7.2mbps and now14! Wow, but try in real life to get that and you are in for a disappointment.
    It’s the sames as going to hi-fi corp and buying the 2000 watt hi-fi, you are in for a disappointment, as it would only be 100 watt in real life. Same as the cell companies

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