UMTS network deployment gains momentum in Africa

UNIVERSAL Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) network deployments are gaining momentum in Africa and around the world.
At the start of the year there were 208 UMTS networks in operation across 85 countries, with 67 more systems either in planning or deployment stages.

Owing to this, service providers now face a challenge on how to protect QoS for the network and QoE for the user when demand for broadband data in particular is spiraling.

“The challenge for service providers is that, just as they demand clear calls, subscribers will expect promised data performance rates to be achieved. 3G service providers must therefore squeeze optimum data capacity from increasingly complex, multilayered systems,” said an expert to the communication technology.

Meanwhile, revenue from data (excluding sms) exceeded 10 billion in the first quarter of the year alone.

It is predicted that over half of the world’s internet users will resort to using their mobile phones to access the internet by 2011.

Informa Telecoms and Media projects that by 2012 there will be 1.3 billion UMTS/HSPA connections.

“Many customers report that they must achieve this goal while balancing other vital commercial demands especially the expectation that efficiencies in the network and across the business must be generated to cut TCO against a backdrop of an increasingly competitive environment.

“Technology is a flexible and innovative ally in the drive to address these challenges,” said the organisation.

ITNewsAfrica.com, Johannesburg