South Africa’s third mobile operator, Cell C, plans to have about 30% of the country’s population covered by its new network, dubbed 4Gs, by the end of this year, CEO Lars Reichelt said earlier this month.

The operator is spending R5-billion in 2010 on rolling out its 4Gs network, which makes use of evolved high-speed packet access (HSPA+) in the 900-MHz and 2 100-MHz frequency bands.

Reichelt added that billions more would be spent on the further roll-out of the network in 2011. He explained that the 4Gs stood for ‘4 Great Speed and 4 Great Service’, and not for ‘fourth-generation network’, which was an as-yet-unratified standard. However, Cell C did believe its network delivered services beyond those of a third-generation network.

The operator was rolling out HSPA+ throughout its entire network, which would be a full Internet Protocol (IP) network, offering speeds of up to 21,6 Mb/s. Reichelt explained that a single HSPA+ 900-MHz transmitter could cover a three-to-five-times-larger area than universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) 2 100-MHz sites, while the HSPA+ 900-MHz transmitter also allowed for between 10 dB and 20 dB more gain, when indoors, than UMTS 2 100 MHz. The HSPA+ 900 MHz would deliver area coverage and, combined with the HSPA+ 2 100 MHz, would provide for greater capacity.

This would enable the operator to provide coverage in areas where it was previously not deemed economically viable, as well as reduce the operator’s capital expenditure and opera- tional expenditure. About 1 300 base stations had already been converted to the HSPA+ 900-MHz frequency band, while fibre backbone and IP access had been secured.

Submarine fibre-optic cable system operator Seacom would supply the broadband fibre connectivity, while a second backup fibre system had also been secured. Cell C was looking to build its own fibre backhaul capacity in the long run, but had, in the interim, secured sufficient fibre capa- city, said Reichelt. These 1 300 base stations were located in six major cities, where user trials were currently under way. Reichelt noted that Cell C would launch the new network on a city-by-city basis, learning from the experience and potential problem areas as it went along. It would make an announcement on the first city launch in the coming weeks. The operator would eventually have about 5 200 base stations on the new network.

Meanwhile, Cell C also announced a rebranded look and the appointment of comedian Trevor Noah as its customer experience officer. The company took out full-page advertisements in major newspapers apologising to Noah, and other customers, for its poor service. This followed after a video clip, in which Noah criticised local mobile operators for their bad service, gained huge popularity on YouTube.

Customers would now be given the opportu- nity to tell Noah, through a website and an SMS line, what bothered and annoyed them about the company’s service. Reichelt emphasised that Noah would not work for the operator, but rather with Cell C to ensure that the public had an arbitrator through which they could inform the operator of problems experienced on its network.

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