4G Technological Upgrade and Access Issues

Telecommunications is a space where changes in technology use in delivery of services has posed a challenge for operators. All the different types of technology that operators are using in service delivery have witnessed some migration from one type of technology to a higher one either in terms of capacity to transmit both voice and data or in the delivery of quality service.
Although, Nigeria started late in the business of telecommunications, it has witness some technological upgrade by operators in the industry, all geared towards improvement of service delivery but none that seek to address access concerns to rural areas as well as making such service within the reach of a common man. Most of all the technological upgrade recorded so far has consistently widening the gap between the rich and the poor. For instance, the handset that allows subscribers access to 3G services are out of reach of common Nigerian let alone the coming 4G.
Upgrades in the Industry
The first set of GSM operators that launched services after the industry was liberalized in 2001 used second generation technology to deliver services. Second generation (2G) cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland in 1991. Three primary benefits of 2G networks over their predecessors were that phone conversations were digitally encrypted, 2G systems were significantly more efficient on the spectrum allowing for far greater mobile phone penetration levels; and 2G introduced data services for mobile, starting with SMS text messages.
Before 2G was launched, mobile telephone systems were retrospectively dubbed 1G. While radio signals on 1G networks were analog, 2G networks are digital, both systems use digital signaling to connect the radio towers (which listen to the handsets) to the rest of the telephone system.
According to experts, digital systems were embraced by consumers for several reasons, which included, the lower powered radio signals which require less battery power, so phones last much longer between charges, and batteries can be smaller.
The digital voice encoding allowed digital error checking which could increase sound quality by increasing dynamic range and lowering the noise floor.
The lower power emissions helped address health concerns. Going all-digital allowed for the introduction of digital data services, such as SMS and email. With analog systems it was possible to have two or more "cloned" handsets that had the same phone number.
A key digital advantage not often mentioned is that digital cellular calls are much harder to eavesdrop on by use of radio scanners.
However, its shortcoming includes in less populous areas, the weaker digital signal may not be sufficient reaching a cell tower. This tends to be a particular problem on 2G systems deployed on higher frequencies, but is mostly not a problem on 2G systems deployed on lower frequencies. National regulations differ greatly among countries which dictate where 2G can be deployed.
2.5G an upgrade from 2G is a stepping stone between 2G and 3G cellular wireless technologies. The term "second and a half generation" is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packet switched domain in addition to the circuit switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit switched data services (HSCSD) as well.
International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), better known as 3G or 3rd Generation, is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union, which includes GSM EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000 as well as Dect and WiMax. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Compared to 2G and 2.5G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates (up to 14.0 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink with HSPA+). Thus, 3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.
The 3G race in the space began when the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) signified its intention to award the licenses to Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) operators in 2006 barely five years after GSM service was launched in the country.
The Competition complete with media blitz of the first to get the license and to launch the service began. The three major operators Zain, MTN and Glo then eventually secured the license and began the upgrade in order to launch the service.
3G is radio communications technology that creates a “bit pipe” for providing mobile access to internet-based services. It enhances and extends mobility in many areas of people’s lives.
In essence, mobility won’t be an add-on; it will become a fundamental aspect of many services. Consumers expect high-speed access to the internet, entertainment, information and electronic commerce (e-commerce) services wherever they are-not just on their desktop computers, home PCs or television sets.
3G services add an invaluable mobile dimension to services that are already becoming an integral part of modern business life: Internet and intranet access, video conferencing, and interactive application sharing.
We are not just talking about “road warriors” who spend their entire lives traveling. It’s more a question of supporting new, flexible working practices where employees need access to a wide range of information and services via their corporate intranets, whether they are at their own desk or anywhere else.
As 3G services enter our day-to-day lives in all sorts of new ways. For instance, in shopping, especially internet “mail order” (e-commerce), banking, or playing interactive computer games over the net with mobile phones especially when the subscriber to the service is within the technology coverage area.
Mohammed Jameel, group chief operating officer, Globacom, explained that the 3G network, in addition to giving customers high speed mobile internet access, allow them to do video calls and video streaming on their 3G enabled handsets. He said: “it also offers other advanced mobile services such as video greeting kiosk, video mailbox, video conferencing on both phones and PCs and such other services as possible on the 3G High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network which enables speeds up to 3.5 Megabytes per seconds (Mbps),”
He said that the services available on Glo 3G Plus  include video calling, high speed internet access either on 3G phone or laptop via data cards, video and audio streaming and mobile TV.
The Glo COO said that the 3G network will revolutionize the way data is transferred and relayed digitally as it enables a much faster transmission of data, voice, broadband internet and multimedia services over a range of frequencies.
Today, few years after the launch Nigeria Communications Week gathered that the service is still restricted to few major towns and cities claimed as commercially viable while operators said more cities will be covered. What this means is that operators are yet to completely provide 3G services to majors cities in the country, that the industry has started clamouring for another upgrade to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE). 4G is the next step from 3G/WCDMA & HSPA for many already on the GSM technology curve but also for others too, such as CDMA operators. This new radio access technology will be optimized to deliver very fast data speeds of up to 100Mb/s downlink and 50Mb/s uplink (peak rates).
Designed to be backwards-compatible with GSM and HSPA, LTE incorporates Multiple In Multiple Out (MIMO) in combination with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in the downlink and Single Carrier FDMA in the uplink to provide high levels of spectral efficiency and end user data rates exceeding 100 Mbps, coupled with major improvements in capacity and reductions in latency. LTE will support channel bandwidths from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz and both FDD and TDD operation.
Although both LTE and WiMAX use the OFDMA air interface, LTE has the advantage of being backwards compatible with existing GSM and HSPA networks, enabling mobile operators deploying LTE to continue to provide a seamless service across LTE and existing deployed networks.
Several major mobile operators, including some running CDMA networks today, have indicated their willingness to adopt LTE in the next few years. Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO launched its commercial LTE network at the end of 2009, while in the U.S., the largest CDMA operator, Verizon Wireless, will soon launch having concluded trialing of the technology.
This new technology no doubt comes with its immense benefits but it also comes with some challenges for both operators who need to upgrade their networks to offer 4G services at both their switch and base station, while subscribers will in the same vien require compactable handsets for them to enjoy services from the technology. In Nigeria, operators are currently faced with decline in average revenue per user (ARPU) occasioned by hard economic situation. Upgrading to another technology may be a challenge even if they are not required to obtain license for which is most unlikely.
Engr. Bayo Banjo, general manager, Disc Communications, said that technological advancement in telecommunications are products of research carried out by especially equipment vendors, and that these vendors invest in research and development with the idea of making profits from the sale of products of such research.
He added that the guiding principle is demand for the product which often times has a global outlook and such would not want to invest in product whose demand is low. He explained that why technological advancements in telecommunications industry are not looking at a way of making equipments for network roll out that will be cheaper and may not require some basic infrastructure is because such equipment vendors are using their home countries which has such infrastructure as basis for producing any product.
He regretted the situation in the country where 60 per cent of telecommunications activities are centred around cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt because government has failed in its effort to provide adequate infrastructure such as electric to the citizens, there by forcing operators to concentrate in the cities where residents can provide generators to use their telecommunications equipment required to enjoy telecommunications services.
He noted that presently, telecommunications equipment for network roll out are getting cheaper as a result of economic meltdown and emergence of Asian vendors such as Huawei among others.