Ais's New 3g Service In Chiang Mai Hits Snags

[george]

New 3G service in Chiang Mai hits snags

CHIANG MAI: -- Advanced Info Service says limited bandwidth has made it impossible to launch a marketing campaign for its third-generation mobile service in Chiang Mai.

As of last Friday the 3GSM Advance brand had signed up just over 100 subscribers since its launch a week earlier, said Wichian Mektrakarn, president of the country's biggest mobile operator.

However, he admitted that the company did not want to launch a full publicity campaign yet because it had just 35 cell sites that only covered the township of Chiang Mai.

The company's technicians were concerned that heavy data downloads by up to 5,000 users would be beyond the network's capabilities, he said. For now, he said, the company was satisfied with the number of users because 3G mobile broadband is brand-new in Thailand and AIS wants to educate the market first.

AIS and its concession owner TOT Plc have sought permission from the National Telecommunications Commission to import more HSPA (high-speed packet access) equipment. They want to develop 40 sites Bangkok and major cities such as Chon Buri, Phuket and Hat Yai in addition to Chiang Mai.

Limited bandwidth of just 5 Megahertz makes it impossible for AIS to provide full broadband services such as that planned by rival DTAC, which has bandwidth on the 850 MHz spectrum.

Mr Wichian said operators did not expect 3G service on the existing spectrum to be very profitable. When the 2100 MHz spectrum is permitted, then all operators would move more aggressively.

At present, only three handset models can support the 3GSM Advance service: Nokia 6121, Phone One 3GM602 and PhoneOne 3GE500. But Nokia plans to introduce nine more 3G-compatible models this year.

Shares of AIS (ADVANC) closed on Friday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 98.50 baht, up two baht, in trade worth 759.3 million baht.

--Bangkok Post 2008-05-20

[nikster]

"... Limited bandwidth of just 5 Megahertz..."

Does anyone know what that means? E.g. what sort of bandwidth would a mobile operator normally have? Is 5MHz less than needed?

I am guessing that a data-only service would be losing money and a real 3G service is impossible when the handsets are not available. Same reason that IMHO the non-GSM operators in the US will go under or get bought by the GSM operated ones - they have crap handsets.

I just read about a software radio that might make off-base frequencies like the one AIS is using viable, but that will show up in devices in a few year's time at the earliest. Cool concept though - instead of a chip that can do one, two, or three different frequencies, this one can be programmed to do any. New technologies and frequencies can be added via software upgrade.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/19/asocs-u...e-or-mobile-wim

[monty]

"... Limited bandwidth of just 5 Megahertz..."

The 900 Mhz band actually exists out of two 25 Mhz wide bands, 890 to 915 for the uplink and 935 to 960 for the downlink. GSM phones are bi-directional, so you need one upload channel and one down load channel simultaneously.

This 25 Mhz band is split in 124 carrier frequencies (each 200 KHz apart). On top of that GSM uses a trick called Time division multiplexing, allowing 8 voice channels per carrier frequencie. So basically each tower can handle 992 simultaneous voice calls (8 X 124)!

Now since all of AIS's voice calls have to go over that bandwidth, I assume they allocated 5 Mhz for their 3G, and use the remaining 20 Mhz for voice calls.

Dtac has a distinct advantage here, due to the fact they have the rights to two frequency bands, the 1800 MHz band and the 850 MHz band.

1800 they use for GSM voice calls, 850 used to be in use for the now defunct analogue mobile phone system.

Hence Dtac will roll out 3G on the 850 MHz band (also 25 MHz wide) which they can use entirely for their data services!

[thetravellingcat]

With the amount of problems 3G caused for UK customers 6 years ago at launch I couldn't understand why anybody would put up 3G masts now what with 4G just around the corner. South Korea has been using 4G for many months already and it works as 3G was promised. You get decent frame rates on video calls so the video doesn't look like a slide-show. As with many new infrastructures it is best not to be an early adopter because you pay through the nose and get a poor service. Better off waiting till the service improves and you get personal recommendations (AIS 4G service rocks!).

[nikster]

"... Limited bandwidth of just 5 Megahertz..."

The 900 Mhz band actually exists out of two 25 Mhz wide bands, 890 to 915 for the uplink and 935 to 960 for the downlink. GSM phones are bi-directional, so you need one upload channel and one down load channel simultaneously.

This 25 Mhz band is split in 124 carrier frequencies (each 200 KHz apart). On top of that GSM uses a trick called Time division multiplexing, allowing 8 voice channels per carrier frequencie. So basically each tower can handle 992 simultaneous voice calls (8 X 124)!

Now since all of AIS's voice calls have to go over that bandwidth, I assume they allocated 5 Mhz for their 3G, and use the remaining 20 Mhz for voice calls.

Dtac has a distinct advantage here, due to the fact they have the rights to two frequency bands, the 1800 MHz band and the 850 MHz band.

1800 they use for GSM voice calls, 850 used to be in use for the now defunct analogue mobile phone system.

Hence Dtac will roll out 3G on the 850 MHz band (also 25 MHz wide) which they can use entirely for their data services!

Thanks for the explanation - makes a lot of sense

I'll be waiting for DTAC then...

[nikster]

With the amount of problems 3G caused for UK customers 6 years ago at launch I couldn't understand why anybody would put up 3G masts now what with 4G just around the corner. South Korea has been using 4G for many months already and it works as 3G was promised. You get decent frame rates on video calls so the video doesn't look like a slide-show. As with many new infrastructures it is best not to be an early adopter because you pay through the nose and get a poor service. Better off waiting till the service improves and you get personal recommendations (AIS 4G service rocks!).

I assume there's two reasons:

1 - 3G is so old by now that the snags have all been taken care of a long time ago. As you said "it's best not to be an early adopter". AIS certainly doesn't want to be an early adopter for 4G.

2 - 4G has even fewer handsets available... AIS will be looking towards the 2100 frequency to be able to actually switch to 3G. They'd be losing customers in droves if the latest Nokia doesn't work on their network, 4G or not...

Edited May 21, 2008 by nikster

[MJo]

With the amount of problems 3G caused for UK customers 6 years ago at launch I couldn't understand why anybody would put up 3G masts now what with 4G just around the corner. South Korea has been using 4G for many months already and it works as 3G was promised. You get decent frame rates on video calls so the video doesn't look like a slide-show. As with many new infrastructures it is best not to be an early adopter because you pay through the nose and get a poor service. Better off waiting till the service improves and you get personal recommendations (AIS 4G service rocks!).

Just out of interest, what is this "4G" technology used in South Korea ?

[monty]

Just to add to the confusion, the systems AIS and Dtac will use are considered 3.5G

The standards are roughly as follows:

# 2.75G:

* EDGE

* EGPRS

# 3G:

* UMTS (W-CDMA)

* CDMA 2000 & 1xEV-DO/IS-856

* FOMA

* TD-SCDMA

* GAN/UMA

* WiMax

# 3.5G:

* UMTS (HSDPA)

* UMTS (HSUPA)

So basically, HSDPA and HSUPA are the fastest proven, implemented and widely used standards. HSDPA has the capability of up to 14.4 Mbps, although currently AIS is using the 7.2 Mbps.

Actually not that many phones/pda's can handle the 7.2 mbps, most are still allowing up to 3.6 mbps, so AIS and Dtac are slightly ahead of the game...

As Nikster posted, I also very much doubt that our local companies can handle being early adopters of new/fast systems, they'll have it hard enough to get a proven system up and running properly

[Cal]

AIS got approval for 3G in February. Dtac is still waiting for approval. What's taking so long?

[motorpsycho]

is that now available with prepaid cards ? guess not...

[monty]

is that now available with prepaid cards ? guess not...

Still only available in Chiang Mai, and yes, you need a new special simcard for it...