TDMA Seems To Work
Better Than GSM, In
Outlying Areas
Especially
If you are having
problems with cellular
reception or lost or
dropped calls, don't
blame your phone, blame
it all on ICE, the state
monopoly in
telecommunications in
Costa Rica.
It appears that the TDMA
technology, which is
considered obsolete in
most parts of the world,
is the one that seems to
work best in Costa Rica.
Currently there 470.000
subscribers to TDMA
(Time Division Multiple
Access) in the country
who receive a better
signal, especially in
the rural areas,
buildings and vehicles,
than do the million
customers of the newer
and more advanced GSM
(Global System for
Mobile communications)
technology.
For those who don't
believe the difference,
the Autoridad Reguladora
de los Servicios
Públicos (Aresep) - the
government regulating
body - has made several
evaluations, comparing
the two systems, and
have found the TDMA with
better service.
Unfortunately, TMDA
phones do not come with
the fancy features like
cameras, MP3 players,
bluetooth, wap, etc. and
the technology is
limited to only sending
text messages in
addition to voice
communications. In
addition, TDMA
telephones cannot
connect to the internet
or allow the transfer of
data and video files.
The TDMA network was
installed in Costa Rica
by Ericsson and Lucent,
while the GSM networks
were installed by
Alcatel and Ericsson.
Studies continue to
prove that the TDMA
works best in our
country than GSM. One of
the most recent studies
done last month in
Alajuela found serious
problems with coverage
of the GSM network,
especially in an around
the area of the Juan
Santamaría international
airport.
Many residents in
Alajuela continually
complain of GSM
coverage, some even have
gone as far as switching
back to the TDMA.
For the director of
Telecomunicaciones at
the Aresep, Roberto
Alfaro, the problems is
due to the network
design and the problems
experience by ICE when
it ran short of GSM
lines due to its
underestimation of
service requirement
where the majority of
customers (80%) were
located in the
metropolitan area and
20% in the rural areas.
However, the reality is
that 47% of cellular
customers are outside
the metropolitan area
and ICE does not have
the towers for coverage.
For Claudio Bermudez,
sub-director of
telecommunications at
ICE, comparing the two
technologies is
"relative". Bermudez
added that in the rural
areas the TDMA may be
better but in the
metropolitan area both
services work equally.
ICE is working on
bettering the service,
according to Bermudez,
with the installation of
58 additional radio
towers in various parts
of the country. The
installation is being
carried out by Ericsson
and ICE promises to
better the Alcatel
installed network as
well by the end of the
year.
The additional radio
towers are part of an
ICE purchase of 300.000
more GSM lines that it
plans to offer by
December of this year,
while it continues the
bid process for the
purchase of 1.5 million
cellular lines of what
is called the third
generation of 3G, which
is expected to be in
service by late 2008 or
early 2009, when ICE is
expected to completely
phase out the TDMA
service.
The change will mean an
additional cost of
subscribers as TDMA
phones will not work on
any GSM network and
currently 3G phones cost
us$500 and up.
|
|
