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| Sunday, 9 November 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Celltel opts for 900 MHz Celltel, the pioneering cellular phone operator, plans to increase its coverage by 250 per cent starting early next year under its fifth phase of the expansion program. CEO of the company Dumindra Ratnayaka said that though plans are under way to increase coverage we will continue to operate within the 900 MHz frequency because it provides customers with greater coverage and clarity compared to 1800 MHz frequency." " However we will also obtain and use the 1800 MHz spectrum for capacity should the need arise, but our preferred option is 900 MHz until such time we are compelled to go in for 1800 MHz due to reasons of capacity." Ratnayaka said that it was an established fact that 1800 MHz signals fade four times faster than 900 MHz signals. The radio waves as they propagate through space attenuate in strength due to many reasons. In fact the higher the frequency the higher the attenuation." Thus the distance covered by a 1800 MHz signal transmitted from a base station is very much less than that of a 900 MHz signal." It has also been established that at different frequencies different materials and grids are either transparent or absorb waves and as the frequency increases the penetration ability of the radio signal decreases. Many phones today remain 900 MHz and if at all existing users of 900 MHz have an advantage over 1800 MHz by way of handsets and coverage said Ratnayaka. He said the frequency band or spectrum allocated was limited with 1800 MHz and initially two network operators were allocated for one country or region, but with the growth of the telecommunications industry and the increase in penetration it was found that the 900 MHz spectrum allocation for GSM was inadequate to provide network capacity therefore the 1800 MHz was allocated for use in densely populated areas. Network operators opted for dual band networks primarily using 900 MHz for coverage and 1800 MHz for capacity purposes,"he added. He said "the late entrants to the cellular phone market had no option but to opt for the 1800 spectrum as there was no 900 MHz spectrum available. since the 1800MHz spectrum reserved for GSM is much larger than the 900 MHz band these operators were able to secure spectrum only in 1800 MHz for their use." Sri Lankan market is voice dominated while data applications are limited to a selected few. As our company vision has always been to develop the telecommunication market we find that our prepaid card is the first choice in the voice segment. "It is convenient and affordable and this segment is growing very fast and constitutes of a large market. The customer within the voice segment has a 90 percent voice and a 10 percent SMS usage. The average customers are not interested in data applications that were supported by data technologies such as GPRS and EDGE" In fact we believe that SMS which is a very useful compliment to voice is limited in its usage because of the language issues and with the evolving of the market it will add value to the bulk of the mobile phone users. The mobile phone usage is on the increase therefore we would put all our energies to developing the industry and also structure our business to give the best advantage to the customer and expand the GSM coverage in the 900 MHz band, said Ratnayaka. |
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