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Thread: Flow LTE

  1. #721
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    Hey Guys, Was in New Kingston doing business all day today and I happened to notice a few interesting things about FLOW's network in that area.

    First thing is this... FLOW has a fourth carrier for HSPA+ on the RAN



    UARFCN 9738 sits beside their other 1900 MHz UMTS layers, i.e. 9763 and 9788. This band sits in the same block that FLOW's Band 2 LTE layer does in Montego Bay. I hadn't the ability to look at the tower to see the RRUs being used if they were GUL 1900 MHz compatible however, they were pumping out some respectable speeds deep indoors. The continguity of the WCDMA carriers on FLOW's 1900 MHz layer in Kingston enables DC-HSDPA much like they had back in 2016.





    The speeds are fantastic for HSPA+ and rivals that of Digicel's 4G network which was doing similarly well in that area. My phone did however try to latch onto LTE as much as it could but Band 4 isn't as hardy as is Band 2. Despite that, when I was out in the open again, FLOW continued to show its raw power.



    If FLOW were to match the same kind of performance that they have in Montego Bay, it would require them shuttering UARFCNs 9738 & 9763 in favour of parity with their Huawei sites on the North Coast; to enable LTE with an EARFCN of 801. As it stands, I suspect this setup in this area of Kingston currently is for voice call capacity purposes but LTE Band 2 would do wonders for the LTE network's indoor reach just based on how Band 2 works elsewhere.
    Last edited by Brandysull; Sep 22, 2018 at 07:08 PM.

  2. #722
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    Kingston & St. Andrew... LTE Advanced is almost here.

    Here's the scoop. I recently spotted on FLOW's network a new UMTS 1900 MHz (PCS) layer. The UARFCN of this channel is 487 on the downlink and 87 on the uplink. This translates to a center frequency of 1947.5 MHz on the downlink (for the rest of this we'll be speaking of the downlink only). With reference to generous data provided from the Government of Jamaica & MSTEM, FLOW holds 27 MHz of PCS spectrum. This new layer lies at the very top of their spectrum holdings. Having done the math, A UARFCN of 487 provides 2.5 MHz span on each side between 1945 MHz and 1950 MHz (which is where FLOW's PCS holding begin as per GoJ data). I've yet to see if the second carrier on PCS (UARFCN 9788 and/or 562) still exists.

    So... enough of the nerdy talk. What this means is that FLOW is preparing its network across its Ericsson sites to broadcast LTE on Band 2. What this means is that by latest Christmas, Kingston will see another speed bump and increased coverage reach indoors. Max speeds of up to 225 Mbit/s and better reach into buildings thanks to LTE Band 2's higher Transmit Power. Exciting times ahead as we transition to a Digital Economy in Jamaica.
    Last edited by Brandysull; Oct 15, 2018 at 03:19 PM.

  3. #723
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    Added update. FLOW looks to have decommissioned GSM 1900 and the second carrier on UMTS 1900 MHz. Within their 25 MHz allocation is a 20 MHz free space. In my estimation, this will become another wideband (20x20 MHz) LTE channel. As I'd referenced earlier, with its higher power characteristics, LTE Band 2 (for specific reference, my estimation is an EARFCN of 901 with FLOW's spacing conventions with .1 MHz band spacing) will see an 100% increase in LTE speed to the tune of 300 Mbit/s peak speed. With Carrier Aggregation already proven in the core network with WCDMA & LTE in Western Jamaica, FLOW is again pushing the border of speed in the mobile department. My timeline for would-be deployment is sometime around Mid to Late November or Early December. The only downside is 3G capacity has been greatly reduced. I do hope that capacity upgrades would be done on 850 MHz and and the sole 1900 MHz 3G layer and maybe some VoLTE love soon?

  4. #724
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    Added update. FLOW looks to have decommissioned GSM 1900 and the second carrier on UMTS 1900 MHz. Within their 25 MHz allocation is a 20 MHz free space. In my estimation, this will become another wideband (20x20 MHz) LTE channel. As I'd referenced earlier, with its higher power characteristics, LTE Band 2 (for specific reference, my estimation is an EARFCN of 901 with FLOW's spacing conventions with .1 MHz band spacing) will see an 100% increase in LTE speed to the tune of 300 Mbit/s peak speed. With Carrier Aggregation already proven in the core network with WCDMA & LTE in Western Jamaica, FLOW is again pushing the border of speed in the mobile department. My timeline for would-be deployment is sometime around Mid to Late November or Early December. The only downside is 3G capacity has been greatly reduced. I do hope that capacity upgrades would be done on 850 MHz and and the sole 1900 MHz 3G layer and maybe some VoLTE love soon?
    What does all this mean?, will we see 1900Mhz Band 2 20Mhz LTE?. What about carrier aggregation for Kingston and St Andrew?. I hope Flow does plan to offer VoLTE soon or even HD voice. Call quality isn't steady and sometimes awful. I'm trying to find out, if Flow has good data coverage in deep rural areas across all of Jamaica?.

  5. #725
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nathan77791 View Post
    What does all this mean?, will we see 1900Mhz Band 2 20Mhz LTE?. What about carrier aggregation for Kingston and St Andrew?. I hope Flow does plan to offer VoLTE soon or even HD voice. Call quality isn't steady and sometimes awful. I'm trying to find out, if Flow has good data coverage in deep rural areas across all of Jamaica?.
    Indeed... We will be seeing CA on Band 2 & 4 for max throughput near 300 Mbit/s. The timelines that were told to me have HD Voice not too far away.

  6. #726
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    Indeed... We will be seeing CA on Band 2 & 4 for max throughput near 300 Mbit/s. The timelines that were told to me have HD Voice not too far away.
    This is for Kingston correct?. Also what about nationwide coverage?. Flow really needs to do better when it comes to coverage in deep rural Jamaica. Out in the bush and hills Digicel coverage is good. Flow has good data coverage in rural areas. But deep rural Jamaica would be good for broadband LTE. Any 700Mhz frequency left, that Flow could purchase from the Government?. They really need low band spectrum to fill in coverage gaps and offer other value added services.

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    User in Clarendon saying he picked up LTE from Flow on 700Mhz band 12. Anyone can verify this? Technicians in the area again informed him that Flow is using 700Mhz band 12. Speeds are average though, it's only 5mhz bandwidth.

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    nicely said i would port my number to flow but there is no signal in my area and also other parts of the island so not going to happen until flow expand ,Claro came after and had way more coverage Flow just not interested in expanding therefore Digicel will always rule the market.

  9. #729
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nathan77791 View Post



    User in Clarendon saying he picked up LTE from Flow on 700Mhz band 12. Anyone can verify this? Technicians in the area again informed him that Flow is using 700Mhz band 12. Speeds are average though, it's only 5mhz bandwidth.
    Well this is EXCELLENT, this would mean that Band 12 will likely serve as the VoLTE layer. Good god, FLOW's network looks to be a behemoth... if that happens to be deployed in Kingston & St. Andrew, combined theoretical speed (vis 3CA) would hit 337.5 Mbit/s. Digicel is in serious trouble... save for the rare edge of cell instance, FLOW will likely serve better speed and network consistency after deployment in sparse and dense geographies. They've now practically lost their geographic advantage.

  10. #730
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    Quote Originally Posted by diarrik View Post
    nicely said i would port my number to flow but there is no signal in my area and also other parts of the island so not going to happen until flow expand ,Claro came after and had way more coverage Flow just not interested in expanding therefore Digicel will always rule the market.
    I agree fully, Flows deep rural coverage is terrible,. There are many areas where they have no signal or coverage at all. I had an incident recently where we were stuck waiting on our driver to leave a deep rural area in St Elizabeth. Its a good thing my sister had Digicel service, because I could not get not a single bar of signal to make even a call. Digicel on the other hand had decent coverage in the said area, both 2G and 3G connections. So we had voice and data service from Digicel.

    Flow really needs to improve their rural coverage, I guess that this is what this band 12 700Mhz LTE is for. Digicel may be slow currently, but at least they have 99% coverage of the country. Including deep rural areas across all Parishes, both carriers have their dead zones. But Flow has way more and needs to fill in those gaps quickly, we know LTE is feasible for them in these areas. But provide decent voice and 3G coverage, and it will be good.

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