Above: Queen’s Park Savannah. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.
BitDepth#1157 for August 09, 2018
Over the last ten days, I’ve been testing the LTE (Long Term Evolution) implementations of Digicel and bmobile against each other.
It hasn’t been an exhaustive test, and it doesn’t include the more remote locations claimed by Digicel in its initial deployment.
This ain’t CARIRI, people, but the results reveal some interesting quirks in coverage in Trinidad.
Speedtest – bmobile
The first thing I discovered is that the device I was using to test the bmobile network had, apparently on its own, defaulted to using the 3G network instead of the radio designed for 4G and above.
It’s a simple enough setting to change, but because of the way the phone reports its connection, I didn’t realise the issue until I booted Speedtest, a network benchmarking app.
I’ve no idea how widespread this might be, but it might be worth doublechecking on your mobile device now and then.
I was also curious to find out just how far south Digicel’s coverage ran. With no appetite for driving down random roads, I settled on a simple test down the Solomon Hochoy Highway, pulling over at major stops along the way to test the signal.
The signal was sampled in PoS and at the exits for Grand Bazaar, Price Plaza, Couva, Pointe-a-Pierre, Golconda and in Barataria.
I operated on the assumption that deployment would follow major roadways in penetrating new communities and the best reach would track closely with major roads and highways.
Both networks were tested against the Flow server in Chaguanas. While it’s possible that both networks probably buy capacity from that third party, it seemed a neutral enough access point to bounce a connection off.
Short answer. Digicel’s 4G signal peters out just before Golconda when driving south, roughly around the C3 Centre. By the time you get to the exit to Golconda, it’s firmly in 2G realm, not even loading Speedtest properly.
But that isn’t a heavily populated area, so while the Digicel signal is supposed to fall back to 3G when LTE peters out, there probably isn’t very robust coverage there to serve the rolling countryside.
If you’re the sort of mobile user for whom south is anywhere past the South Quay lighthouse, then you’re golden.
I ran a parallel test on the network during the highway drive; one managed by The Little Tyrant, who streamed dance videos on the YouTube Kids app.
There were no complaints along the route until the signal disappeared, no skipping, no loading pauses, nothing, so that earned an unequivocal thumbs up from an otherwise disinterested party.
Which isn’t to say that there aren’t quirks in coverage.
In the driveway of a home in North Valsayn, both networks were in a deadzone. At Kitchener
Speedtest-Digicel
Avenue in Barataria, bmobile barely registered at 2Mbps while Digicel roared in at 44.
In most locations, there was greater parity in service, though Digicel’s numbers were faster by factors of between 10 and 25 percent (spreadsheet here).
That might be the difference between a mature network (bmobile’s LTE is now a year old) and a newer deployment that’s still migrating users. Since both services require a change of SIM card, it’s a process that takes time.
Digicel claims that 100,000 of its mobile broadband users have made the switch, which should put an adequate load on the system, but only time will prove whether the current speed advantage can be maintained as more users move to LTE.
Anyone who’s been on an LTE network abroad will be surprised at the relatively low in-country speeds.
That particular problem is the result of the Telecommunications Authority’s inexplicable decision to withhold the 700MHZ spectrum from both carriers, forcing them to implement an LTE solution over a frequency optimised for 4G which limits maximum possible speeds.
LTE-A is currently specified at a maximum of 100Mbps for mobile use and 1Gbps for installations, such as mobile hotspots, but that depends on the quality of network and switching systems in place to support the frequency.
That continues to be an unfortunate situation, moreso because the authority has never offered any sensible explanation for its intractability on this core infrastructural issue.
Great Article, but I don’t think the 700Mhz frequency would equate to faster higher speeds. 700Mhz is great for comprehensive coverage and exceptional in building propagation penetration. Digicel Jamaica uses the 700Mhz frequency and average speeds here run about 30-48Mbps, the highest I’ve seen is 67Mbps. In Jamaica the fastest LTE Network is Flow, they utilize AWS Band 4 (1700/2100)Mhz LTE . Average speeds for Flow here is 60-84Mbps. Flow Jamaica also has LTE-A in selected areas of Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios. LTE-A speeds for Flow max out at 260Mbps. Flow Jamaica went the route of capacity, hence the Band 4 LTE carries more data as the capacity is twice the size that of Digicel, Flows LTE being wide-band 20Mhz LTE while Digicel uses 10Mhz of Band 17 LTE. I think band 4 LTE will serve T&T well, 700Mhz can be used for the rural areas and for improved low spectrum coverage. Digicel Jamaica is now deploying band 4 LTE to relieve the congestion on its 700Mhz Band 17 LTE network, I hope they plan to do 2CA in Jamaica as well.
Thanks for the extensive and useful background information. I’m more a reporter than a technologist, so while I can roll through most of the techspeak and make some sense of it, this is an interesting perspective on the technical aspects of LTE implementation, particularly in the context of an island roll-out. I’m working from the discussions I had with bmobile during their roll-out, where they plainly stated that they would have preferred to work with the 700mhz band and Digicel’ long delay in responding to their implementation.
I imagine that there may be backhaul issues as well as equipment adaptation issues and costs that may have influenced their preference for that frequency, but I can’t speak to that with any authority. If you’d like to write a equivalent , or perhaps even better assessment of the state of mobile broadband in Jamaica for comparison, I’d be happy to publish it.
No Problem, Digicel has capacity issues here in Jamaica, which results in very poor Network coverage and experience at times. Mind you, Digicel wasn’t always like this, Their data speeds and Network experience used to be awesome. Hence the tagline “The Bigger, Better Network’. To alleviate the backhaul issue, they would need to upgrade to 100% fiber to the site and do away with the microwave units they have on some of their towers. Also they have to make the right spectrum acquisitions. In the Mobile telecoms world, Spectrum is King, its best that they have a mixture of high-band and low band frequencies. That way they cover the entire country, without sacrificing speed and capacity. I am a working progress myself, so intense knowledge of the state of telecoms in Jamaica is limited to some of what I have shared here. I would love to write an assessment, but at this time. I strongly believe that I am not qualified to do so. As my understanding and observation of the Jamaica telecoms market grows, I can definitely put together a verified and authentic report sometime in the very near future.