Country leads region in rolling out faster Internet

Last December, Safaricom was the first telco in sub-Saharan Africa to launch the LTE (long term evolution) or Fourth Generation (4G) mobile network.

Fourth Generation mobile telecommunication technology is the latest instalment in a series of mobile services, each better than the last.

One may ask, why is it called 4th generation? New mobile generations have appeared about every 10 years since the first one in 1981 analogue (1G) which moved to digital (2G) transmission in 1992.

This was followed, in 2001, by 3G multi-media support. Ten years later, starting around 2011/2012, 4th Generation started to be rolled out in developed countries.

The 4G network offers users unparalleled speed when accessing the Web from a mobile, tablet or laptop.

The standard rate set for users averages speeds of six megabits per second, compared with 3G’s one megabit per second. This speed fluctuates between five to seven times faster than before.

Due to this rather vast increase in speed, users can expect a more reliable and much improved service when streaming, downloading and gaming. 4G also offers users a range of other services that have become second nature to modern living — including HD mobile TV, cloud computing and video conferencing.

To round off the many advantages 4G has over its predecessor, it offers a much wider ranging and more stable network than 3G, meaning your Internet connection is stronger and will not slow down suddenly during use.

In short, 4G’s main feature is an ultra-broadband Internet service which is currently available on a range of smart phones and USB wireless modems.

ENABLED

Big question is; is your phone 4G enabled? One way of answering this question is by going to the settings option on your phone handset and finding the network type. This should tell you whether you are currently using 4G or whether you’re still with 3G.

If you have an iPhone, you can go to Settings>Mobile/Cellular>Voice & Data. For the Android family, go to Settings>Mobile Data>Network Mode> LTE/4G.

You should also have your SIM card replaced with a 4G compliant one. Safaricom has been calling upon its customers to go and have their SIM cards replaced for free.

For now, the company has rolled out the 4G service only in Nairobi and Mombasa cities, but other regions are soon to be scaled up.

While testing 4G compliance, ensure that data is enabled and Wi-Fi is disabled. Wi-Fi needs to be disabled due to the fact that in most phones, a Wi-Fi connection will automatically override a data connection.

When buying a new smartphone, however, you might assume that it comes with all the latest technology and the ability to connect to any mobile network you choose. While this would be ideal, it’s unfortunately far from the truth.

You may be surprised to note that phones like iPhone 5 and Galaxy S5 are not 4G enabled but their successors are.

Some of the mid-priced 4G-enabled phones include HTC One SV, Sony Xperia SP, BlackBerry Q5, Microsoft Lumia 640 and Nokia Lumia 630. In the top-range class of phones, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Huawei P7 are 4-G compliant.

Apart from Kenya, other countries rolling out 4G technology in sub-Saharan region include Rwanda and Morocco, and Algeria in the north.

4G mobile networks use multiple antennae and transmitters and hence users will experience much poorer battery life on their mobile devices while on this network. They would have to use larger mobile devices with more battery power to be able to stay online for longer.

As with most new technology, 4G will most likely have its initial glitches and bugs, which could be quite annoying for the user.

Sam Wambugu is a monitoring and evaluation specialist; [email protected]