Got a message 3x that digicel upgrading something on their broadband network
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Preferred Phone OS: Android*Intelligent people can take hints
Interestingly I was in West for the weekend and Digicel network is LTE. Surprising because I noted this not in Savanna-la-mar or Negril but in a small community just outside of Bluefields. Mind you network speeds are crap....average 1.8 up, 2mb down. Feels pedestrian compared to Flow's H+ network which is averaging 11mbs down and 4.5 up
Well... FWIW, FLOW uses Ericsson's RBS6000 in those areas. A number of FLOW engineers are in awe of the HSPA+ speeds there. Admittedly, Ericsson equipment always does the job better than anything else. LTE might soon be near as FLOW widens their Band 2 reach.
I highly doubt any of the carriers are heavily saturated traffic wise anyhow.
The area is reasonable populated but I don think it is very saturated. What I know people are seriously frustrated with their Digicel Service in the area. Given the unavailability of widespread wired broadband most persons there rely on Cellular data for internet. Hoping that both networks step it up.
So, at long last... Digicel's secret LTE Advanced network!
It is..... less than impressive. True LTE Advanced is supposed to be what we see on FLOW.
Digicel's LTE Advanced network comprises LTE Band 17 and their newly acquired Band 4 spectrum. The combined throughput w/o headroom accommodation is 150 Mbit/s but more realistically 120 Mbit/s at max. Both carriers are at 10 MHz bandwidth each.
Much to Digicel's chagrin, FLOW is currently decommissioning their 1900 MHz GSM layer, freeing a 5 MHz block in their spectrum assets and making for FLOW to widen its Band 2 layer to 20 MHz in the near future, like that of their Band 4 layer. Its combined throughput will be 300 Mbit/s. With Ericsson's new RUS & ERS radios (5G kit) that they'll be deploying in Kingston enabling 4x4 MIMO & 256QAM... that will touch over 600 Mbit/s.
The distance between FLOW & Digicel is a joke. Also, Digicel is giving LTE a bad name... People actually think there's not difference between LTE & 4G HSPA+... That is bad.
Last edited by Brandysull; Aug 18, 2018 at 07:57 PM.
Brandy, to say I am disappointed is an understatement. I am truly vex, how can Digicel in all truth and facts present this as LTE Advance?. This must be a early anomaly, maybe the optimization isn't finished as yet. And they are still doing work, this cant be what they present to the Jamaican people as 4G+. They have so called LTE Pro in Panama, and it is much faster than this.
I truly believe Digicel takes us for idiots, I guess as you mention. Since a lot of people dont know the difference between LTE and 3G, which are apart of the same 4G 3GPP standard. Then Digicel can disguise this mediocrity, as modern and state of the art LTE network. I still dont believe this is the true and final average speed for Digicels LTE-A Network, when work is officially finish and the average speeds know and proven. Then I will make my judgement, Digicel at this point doesn't fail to disappoint. Any info on where in Kingston and ST Andrew this test was done, and on what device?.
Last edited by Arch_Angel; Aug 19, 2018 at 12:31 PM. Reason: shortened quote
This is well into the "optimization" process. FLOW's LTE Advanced network in the west is still being optimized and yet it's FAR faster than what Digicel has. If this is truly the speed of which Digicel will delivering LTE Advanced at... they can keep it. I'll inquire as to the location of the speedtest but still... this doesn't spell well at all. Digicel has been missing the mark ever since they went the route of ZTE; Early 2017. I knew it was coming....
The test device is a OnePlus 3T
Tiad to tell unnu.. Digicel Network is overloaded,..
Digicel knows that 95% of its users just need to know they can WhatsApp/Facebook/Instagram and you don't need super fast blazing LTE to do that.. yes they will market it as that as it sounds good but believe me allot of people don't even know what LTE is .. I've heard lots of people calling it LITE.
Flow has better LTE.. but until Digicel really feels a threat from Flow they ain't gonna go all out..