Martin Sanne, divisional director for mobile networks at Siemens Communications, says the service offers significant benefits to the people of Namibia as well as to the economically important tourism industry.
 
For the cellular subscriber, this will mean HSDPA with significantly enhanced service quality and improved performance for mobile commerce, downloading data, using the internet and accessing corporate networks, says Sanne. As a preferred tourist destination, Namibia will also now be able to offer visitors a number of mobile data services such as high speed internet and video telephony.
 
Aimed at downlink-driven services such as e-mail delivery, file download, Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), database retrieval, server access, Web browsing and audio and video streaming, HSDPA is the most cost-efficient solution for mobile network operators to increase bandwidth by increasing the downlink peak rate by up to 14Mbps.
 
Typically, a three-megabyte file takes about 67 seconds to download with UMTS while HSDPA does it in 12, Sanne says. Siemens has developed an enhanced HSDPA scheduler which aims to enable the operator to flexibly support data users in HSDPA cells depending on the applications used and on reception conditions.
 
Sanne says that having supplied the primary switching networks to MTC for the last ten years and developing a sound business relationship during this time, Siemens demonstrated the benefits of a move to next generation technology.
 
Following the tender process, Siemens was awarded the tender at the beginning of August 2006 to supply the complete HSDPA network that will run parallel to MTCs existing network, says Rocky Schmidt, account director: business development at Siemens Communications. This is also the first time that a 3G HSDPA network has been supplied to one of the smaller mobile network operators in the SADC. Also, considering that Namibia recently granted its second mobile telecommunications licence to another company, the installation of a 3G HSDPA network will give MTC a significant technology advantage over its new competitor.