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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
