Latest survey shows demand for 4G in Nepal

I may have been writing here & there but its been a while I have been active here. Its always better to be here in my personal blog to write whatever I like. Last article (not here), I had written about my preference for 4G being a better technology and the reasons for following the cellular evolution here in Nepal. While other parts of the world are going through the research, development and standardization cycle for 5G, Nepal is now in the verge of accepting 4G technology. This article, I am referring to the survey result done by Nepalitelecom.com, that shows the tendency of people for 4G in Nepal. The survey done during the 4G launch in Nepal, has got responses mainly from the major cities in Nepal.

From the survey result, It is interesting to know that the most of the city dwellers are awaiting 4G in their area. That does not mean there is no demand in other growing areas but it is in the cities that most operators start with. For some, the reasons for not expecting 4G is due to their doubt for the affordability of the service and the handsets. The voice service from VoLTE, found to be better quality than the legacy voice, also seems to allure customers for 4G.

Speed with 4G.

Currently, the maximum speed of 4G in Kathmandu and Pokhara is up to 30 Mbps speed with Nepal Telecom. The result shows that 42 percent of the people want 30 Mbps or more speed. If we see the result other way, more than 90 percent people now want speed greater than 5 Mbps. This is quite surprising to know such huge demand of people for the speed.

Price of 4G Handsets

Though there are quite a lot of ranges for the 4G handsets, their survey result shows that 43% people can afford Rs 25,000. That is they are most likely to spend near to Rs 25,000 for a 4G smartphone, which is perfect price for a mid ranger.

Which 4G data package seems good?

They also found out out the popular data package in 4G comes at 5GB (with 100 minutes free call) per month. As in India, the voice call with 4G is free of cost, after subscribing some data packages. The unlimited free data and calls from Jio  is also going to close in the end of March. Similar will be the case later here in Nepal, for free voice calls. But I doubt the true unlimited internet with 4G mobile to exist any time soon.

The survey result shows, 50% people want more than 2 GB data with 4G. Some even prefer unlimited internet which they believe can be provided by the telecom operators but others felt the operators limitation for true unlimited data service, considering resource restriction, high internet costs from abroad, high equipment costs and any network error resulting in worst experience. For the usage of 4G at their home, most people say unlimited 4G internet as the prerequisite. Others prefer free home device, free local content like videos, songs that can make 4G alternative to their current home broadband. The survey even showed the feasibility of providing television service with 4G, including broadcast or movies on demand.

As mentioned in the previous article, the latest cellular evolution is known to include the data connection to almost all devices. For this, majority of people here expressed their interest to connect home devices including house hold appliances, if there would be any such technology here.

Huge demand for 4G

Last time, I had mentioned of the people's eagerness, hesitation to acquire the 4G technology. Nepalitelecom survey shows the huge demand for 4G in city areas and the feasibility of several other services including Television in 4G here. This sort of result is likely to encourage operators for planning and investing more on 4G. This time, one operator is struggling to get the 4G license and another opting for better use of the spectrum. Other operators may also join the race but now they are still in infancy state for launching 4G due to insufficient infrastructure. Later the unavoidable competition will make people adapt to 4G.

If you want to read the whole survey result, do visit here.

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GSM RF optimization trends

Tools are indispensable for a telecom operator which help the carrier to foster its health in this highly competitive business. Lakhs ( 0.1 Million) of customers are being added to their network seeking good quality service in affordable rates. The ability to cater the increasing demand for the service, is dependent upon the time, the carrier takes to extend their network (adding more resources be it frequency carriers or BTS itself) and that sometimes is also possible by making maximum use of the existing resources: Optimization. No matter what, tools should be there to fasten/improve the effort.

RF optimization work is a process through which different physical parameters (like antenna adjustments) in a cell and logical parameters like RF parameters of a cell/BSC (collectively called BSS) are modified to provide good coverage, quality and capacious network. Drive testing a route with a software tool in a laptop, and iterative actions to improve the service, is the conventional way of performing the optimization work. GSM RF team that I am working with are doing this sort of hit and trial work to address the problem so far. Drive testing an area identifies a very common problem for the cell, that is degrading the quality of service for the users in that area but the extensive analysis of the DT log file requires a post processing tool that determines the cause of severe problems and helps solve it immediately. Absence of post processing tool in RF optimization has paid a lot in being efficient/fast in solving a RF related problem. But when it comes to solving a problem in whole of the network, DT and post processing even falls short for the limitation of analysis only in the DT route (as most of the DT are done in streets and roads) and the time it takes in analysis and solving the problem. Also more than half of the network usage happens indoor, drive testing and post processing in every corner requirement makes it out of date. Virtual Drive test (VDT), is one of the new techniques that enables every mobile users to be a drive testing tool, and acquires the signal measurement of serving and neighbor cells by the user along with its position. Those measurement data from probe can be analyzed with tools to identify problems in whole of the network and act instantly.

Integration of prediction data and Drive test or Measurement data (from Probe) is also possible in the latest planning/optimization tools in giving better work plan for RF optimization and is pretty significant in yielding good KPI (Key performance Indicators). This sort of tool (Capesso with Aircom Asset) is the latest to reach me which has not only such integration but has the ability to efficiently optimize the number of the sites for the coverage/capacity/quality requirement. Measurement report accumulation requires additional probe in BSC/RNC/Core which can even monitor and analyze customer problem happened in the near past. Other tools (that may come to my hand in near future), even has the ability to automatically modify/plan network configuration, being based on the live data taken from the network. Such tools remove the need for periodic and cuber some manual data processing, and is one step further towards the fully automated Self Organizing networks (SON).

Self Organizing Networks (SON) is a fully automated technology that has the functionality to self configure, self optimize and self heal in a mobile Radio access network (RAN), such that rapid roll out of better quality network is possible with least manual interactions. Self configuration enables a site to be just plug and play, with the automatic cell configuration, yielding faster roll-out. Self optimization include automated load balancing to handover optimization to coverage optimization for speeding the best optimization for good quality network. Self healing automatically adjusts cell parameters and recover failures in case of detection of a failure. SON being a feature of LTE (Long Term Evolution),can also be applied to GSM and UMTS radio network but is not yet launched full fledgedly.

Trends in GSM RF Optimization, from drive test based to integration of prediction, measurement and live data, is now moving towards full automation, which is the future of next generation mobile networks. All in all, such tools help a telco run a good quality network, satisfying customers in every nook and corner.

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Nt data tariff slashed

Nepal Telecom has reduced the internet data tariff by 50 percent to 5 paisa per 100 KB. Earlier NT had slashed the data tariff rate from 25 paisa to 10 paisa. This reduction comes into effect from 5th July, 2012 and is on test for 3 months only according to the advertisement in Gorkhapatra. This data rate is available on 3G,GPRS/Edge services on GSM and PDSN, EVDO services on CDMA.

Last Tuesday NT also reduced the budget call rate to America and Canada which is now available @NRs 1.75 per minute by dialing Access code 1424.
Source:

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LTE Advanced Roaming

Last week a new apple product was out in the market, the first one from the giant apple with LTE enabled on it. If you are in US, then you can access the 4G LTE from AT&T and Verizon from this gadget, Otherwise this 4G LTE enabling is of no use for you. Problem lies in the frequency of operation of this device to be at 700 MHz and 2100 MHz which is predominantly used in USA and Canada. But for Europe and Asia, where the frequency of 4G LTE is different like 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2600 MHz, this new Apple product has to rely on 3G or Wi-fi for broadband access and data roaming. This is of a big concern for the roaming feature to be available universally in all the networks. The unavailability of enough spectrum in same frequency all around the world hinders the universality among wireless carriers, though they are using the same technology. Thats a bigger crunch for the UE vendors to manufacture a device that can operate in all operators but with affordable price, which is a mission impossible thing for now to put 6 bands of operating frequency in a single device. A frequency spectrum in America for LTE is being used for television broadcasting in Europe, Africa and used for 3G in Asia or some other technology in other country. So It's high time global Telecommunication body like ITU (International Telecommunication Union) act on it for the global frequency re-farming for the broad acceptance of UE and new technology.

P.S: Huge expectations are in iPhone 5 that is believed to cater the universal access of LTE all around the world. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

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OpenBTS

It takes Billions of rupees to run a telecom network, be it GSM, CDMA or third generation technology and beyond. Recently Nepal telecom had floated a global tender where chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei vied for the 10 Million GSM & compatible network project which costs around 20 billion, decision yet to come. With such huge sum of money required, licensing and frequency sum apart, it is almost impossible even for a business tycoon to make it real.

Fig 1: OpenBTs logo

I had heard of open source, open platform, open interface from which people are envisaging of everything to be open in near future. Not long ago, I heard of OpenBTS which made me change my previous thoughts on running a Mobile network. USRP (Universal Software Radio peripheral) connects with USB or Ethernet interface to a host computer running a OpenBTS application that presents GSM air interface to standard handsets. And the call is connected via voip backhaul and Free switch (another open source application for call and Message). This kind of cheap technology can be used for private network and rural telephony. With such open combination and one cheap USRP from US, I can even own a GSM network. Contrary to the excitement in owning a telecom network, I am puzzled instantly with lots of unanswered questions for which I need to spend couple of hours for searching details or even send emails to experts. For now, I put a stop. 

Fig 2: Running OpenBTS

Fig 3: USRP

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