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A quantum leap in cellphone technology
Igsaan Salie
June 20 2004 at 11:14AM

South Africa is taking a quantum leap in cellphone technology; you should be able to make video calls by Christmas and chat to people face-to-face on your cellphone. And watch TV on your cellphone.

The latest cellular technology has arrived, putting South Africa on a par with the highest international standards.

The Third Generation (3G) network is the latest in cellphone technology that allows data to be transferred much faster than current systems. Network operators said this week it should be available to South African consumers by the end of the year.

With the new network you can download video clips of your favourite World Cup goals onto your cellphone, watch television and take part in live high-quality video conferences.

'The previous systems were much too slow'
It also offers faster internet access and advanced interactive gaming capabilities.

Third Generation has already been implemented in countries such as Japan and South Korea, as well as in Europe where the technology started slowly in 2002 but is really taking off this year.

Only the newest cellphones will be capable of video calls and a new billing system will be implemented, as video calls are bound to be more expensive that normal calls. Files that currently take 15 minutes to download will be processed in a mere 20 seconds.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa recently granted temporary 3G operating licences to Vodacom and MTN.

Pieter Uys, Vodacom Group's chief operations officer, said that the network had already been set up and corporate clients were treated to a demonstration in Johannesburg this week.

"We made a call from Johannesburg to London by video call. It was amazing," Uys said.

"The woman we spoke to was walking by the Thames River and the picture clarity was so clear, you could see the clouds in the sky behind her head and her hair blowing in the wind. The picture quality was so good that you could even see the colour of her eyes."

Uys said the speed of the service was the most important element of the new system.

"The previous systems were much too slow and cost too much to make downloading files viable."

At the demonstration the phone was plugged into a satellite decoder, providing live television on the phone. "Now for the first time in South Africa you can enjoy video conferencing, and not just transferring of video files but actually live video," Uys said.

Mandisa Korri, internal communications manager at MTN South Africa, said that the 3G network was the evolution of MTN's network and supported richer and more interactive services.

"3G requires a high initial investment but has a lower long-term cost so will ultimately make data more cost effective and therefore drive new services such as music downloads."

Korrie said that the technologies of today would be sufficiently widespread by the soccer World Cup in South Africa in 2010 to enable information and events leading up to soccer matches to be easily accessible to users.

"A supporter (will be able to) book and pay for tickets by mobile, and to choose a seat from a stadium layout," Korri Said.

Uys said Vodacom also had big plans for the 2010 soccer World Cup and was intent on taking the faster video download times to the next level.

Users will be able to get all the goals of their favourite match sent to them in 10-second video clips.



This article was originally published on page 4 of Sunday Independent on June 20, 2004

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=115&art_id=vn20040620111413717C414794