Final corrections before the BATTLE!!

It surely has been busy days during the past 3 to 4 months for our mobile operators. Strengthening their network before the new comer hits the market.

Dropped call

Tigo had to reconsider its network after attracting more and more subscribers. Several dropped and blocked calls were frequent on its network last year. There where some spots (particularly indoor environment) to be filled on which you could get no coverage at all. More needed to be done on their 3G network as well, by increasing the number of transceivers (antennas).


On the other end, MTN with its "aging" 3G network had to perform an upgrade. It was about time, as their speeds didn't portray what a 3G trchnology should offer (although field performances hardly meet ideal modes).
For their 2G network, they had all the time in the world since 1998 to optimize it as they had a much slower increase in their number of subscribers.                

Handset ready to drop 3G signal as the level reaches -106dB

The next thing that should be considered, both by the two providers, would be to increase the coverage of 3G. Even in urban area. It really gets annoying when your handset performs a handoff from a 3G to a 2G station (and vice-versa) each 50m walking around. Especially knowing the fact that you can't receive voice calls while using data services on 2G.

Shortage on MTN network

Its been more than 4 days that MTN data communication users are experiencing slow, if any, connections particularly with the 3G network.

MTN customers anger was mostly due to the silence or non-satisfying reasons from the operator. Some times statements from MTN officials saying the issue comes from a fiber optic cable cut in Tanzania, other times blaming their 3G network upgrade.

Some subscribers claim the voice communication is also faulty. MTN has to deal with the increasing number of 3G users since the introduction of unlimited data plan for only 21,000frw /month.

RURA, the regulator, might consider taking action against MTN if customers keep experiencing the poor delivery.

MTN CEO had a press conference today, blaming the shortage on several cuts of the EASSy (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System) cable causing MTN to loose 80% of its international capacity. Before, some outages experienced by some data users were due to the upgrade of 3G network, the CEO assured. He finally promised that a compensation will be provided to all data users after the upgrade.

Kigali's 3G test

Today I am showing you a quick test I did on 3G networks here in Kigali.
  
Note: these tests should not be considered as a full reference of the two operator's networks, rather they expose what to be expected.

The speed tests were performed indoor, outdoor and in a moving vehicle to showcase different scenarios. But performed with the same handset.

These two screen-shots above are from an indoor speed test. 63513, standing for Tigo network (still wondering why folks from Tigo didn't put the name of their network instead of the code numbers), shows faster download speeds (1.491Mbps) compared to R-cell network (0.619Mbps = 619Kbps). These tests are the highest download speeds achieved after 3 tests for each network.




On these two screen-shots from an outdoor spot (Tigo on the left and MTN on the right), MTN showed some kind of stability. Surprisingly I had too much difficulty to achieve 300Kbps on Tigo's 3G.

Finally in a moving vehicle (30 to 60km/h), speeds fell under 300Kbps which is not really a surprise with a moving handset.


Overall, after several tests, MTN 3G network looked relatively constant on its speeds (500-700Kbps) while Tigo could offer peaks of up to 2Mbps.
There has been an improvement inTigo's network from last year,but MTN still has the advantage of a fairly good 3G coverage in Kigali.

The imminent Airtel will, with no doubt, bring a new generation of mobile network. Just as Rwandatel brought 3G network (MTN had to follow right after), and Tigo came with 3.5G (I'll let you guess what MTN did after that).
Airtel might come up with a HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) network branded 3.75G, which is an upgrade on the Uplink (connection from the handset to the tower/antenna) of the HSDPA 3.5G network. Airtel already deployed this network in some countries in Africa where it is operating.

But hey! Why not a 4G right from the start :) . Unofficial news are stating that the operator is deploying a new generation of equipment with LTE (Long Term evolution) compatibility.

Answers on the launching day.

Early signs?

It's been a while that I've been seeing new GSM antennas rising from roof tops of some buildings in Kigali. This got me curious, wondering if the new transceivers were from the awaited Airtel. Obviously, the new operator should be by now 'cooking' its new network and performing some tests before the official launch.

I decided to do some sniffing of the waves around us with my handset, looking for signs of Airtel. I have to say my results were totally unexpected. Here are 2 snapshots from my handset.

63513 stands for Tigo network (don't ask me why people from Tigo didn't put a name to their network), R-CELL for MTN and VodaCom for???? TELECEL-BDI???

Now that got me thinking how Vodacom is being picked up in Kigali! Telecel operates in Burundi. How is it showing up in Kigali? Are they towers being under test by Airtel? Why would they bare these names from operators outside the country? I couldn't find any plausible answer to these questions.

We are now more than 4 million!

RURA recently published via its website www.rura.gov.rw new figures of mobile users in Rwanda. We're now approximately 4.424 million mobile users. The increase, from 36% last year to 41% of the population, was mostly made possible by Tigo who's now carrying more than 1.5 million GSM users, closing the gap with MTN and its 2.9 million subscribers (attracting less compared to Tigo).

RURA is expecting mobile utilization to hit 60% of the population before the end of 2012. RURA assures that the current pace and the imminent arrival of Airtel, this goal (60%) will be reached by the end of the year. But we all know new companies tend to start in urban areas where people are already mobile users... But this time we can feel that Airtel is generating more enthusiasm more than any other company before its launch.

It is rumored that Airtel will be launching officially its services this April. We should see some unusual movement from our two current operators by then. Some breaking news (needs to be confirmed as well) are stating that Tigo has just acquired both the fiber optic and WIMAX network of the bankrupted Rwandatel. If this news is proved to be true, the acquirement would be a huge deal for Tigo in the race of ISPs (Internet Service Provider). Before RURA revoked its license, Rwandatel, according to its employees, was building a strong mobile-WIMAX network in Kigali (the first in the country). Currently Tigo is the second ISP in the country, behind Rwandatel which is still providing fixed internet services (RURA numbers).


What are your thought on this? What are your expectations from Airtel launch?

End of TIGO's honeymoon?

10rwf/min? Over. 1rwf/SMS? over. 3rwf/SMS? Over!!

5 months after Tigo started operating in Rwanda they slashed prices like no one ever did, attracting customers at a speed never seen before. "Tigo weee, icumi ku munotaaaa" was what people were hearing everywhere at that time (meaning 10rwf per minute for calls). International calls from 30rwf/ minutes, local SMS at only 1rwf...
These unbeatable prices allowed Tigo to attract 1 million subscribers in less than 2 years of operations. Later on introducing Packs, where you can "buy" minutes, a number of SMS and some data volume before using them at a low price.

Tigo now seems to be a little bit increasing its charges day after day. Local calls and SMS are now at 15rwf/min and 10rwf respectively. Still, the Blue Company has the lowest call rates.

On the other hand, Big Yellow tends to decrease prices. All these changes are, in one way or another, related to the upcoming start of Airtel.

Few days ago, I was reading this magazine called Jeune Afrique. I found an article on Orange (a France Telecom company) in Africa. It was describing how this mobile telecom company is having a difficult 2011 year. Present in 18 countries in Africa, the company suffered losses during conflicts this year especially in Egypt and Ivory Coast, both in terms of infrastructures and customers.
The part that interested me was about Orange in Kenya. The company lost a potential gain of up to 20 million US$ due to the arrival of Bharti Airtel, according to the article. The Indian company forced Orange, and other operators in the country, to cut by half their prices.

No doubts all these changes looks like "adjustments" for our two local operators before the end of there monopoly.

Is it the end of phone calls?

                               Bell with what would later result in the invention of the telephone



I know the title of this post might sound too strong. But I would like to ask you a question: who's nowadays making phone calls from fixed lines? Practically no one. This was due to the popularity of mobile phones but also the fact that fixed lines were not adopted by many.


In this post I am not talking about fixed line calls but mobile phone ones. It has never been more easy to pull your device out of your pocket and make a phone call to literally anywhere in the world. But now this service we use on our daily routine is being threatened by new ways of communicating.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, the new Google+ (still unknown here in Kigali) are all new and relatively cheap ways of communication. People tend to send messages using these platforms to avoid relatively expensive phone calls. If there is no real emergency, you can send a message on Facebook or tweet a friend or family. Of course they have to be online regularly to read your messages, but it's becoming easier to be online even on the go since the introduction of mobile Internet in 2008.
Social networks can sometimes become more efficient allowing people to get in touch without knowing each others cell numbers....

For the always-online users, this is an alternative way of keeping in touch. Just as much as people used to avoid expensive long distance calls by Skypeing. As ISPs are lowering their prices, we might see people getting online more often and starting to use internet as a way of keeping in touch.

Messaging services on high-end devices like BBM, iMessage, WhatsApp... are also becoming more popular. Not forgeting SMSs.

No wonder why operators are trying to get their subscribers get online at least on their own network.

This might resolve the problem of spectrum carriers face on long term. Maybe.

I know I might have sounded like I was killing phone calls, but we all know there is no such thing as a voice communication where you kinda get the real feeling of your friend. Like I said, new ways of communication are coming and VoIP services are also voice communication.... Your thoughts?