They improve communications in Cuba. Author: Abel Rojas Barallobre

In April, the new Arimao cable began its trial period with the operation of the new station. This investment was made and certified to international standards by ETECSA, which, as a novelty, is working in conjunction with a system provider, Lidia Esther Hidalgo Rodriguez, vice president of network operations, confirmed to the press.

As he explained, “These tests are currently processing the initial level of traffic growth for appropriate adjustments to be made in line with the optimization and growth actions that have been taken on other layers of the aforementioned network. This allowed us to increase overall traffic by 17% during this month, with mobile accounting for 83% of this value.”

In this sense, he explained that, outside of peak hours, an increase in transmission speed can be seen in areas where work has been carried out to increase capacity.

“Undoubtedly, coincidence determines the perceived quality for which, as we have already mentioned, actions continue to be performed. We have not yet reached the data rates expected by our customers, and this is in response to actions that are still in progress, both in adding new international capacities and growing new elements at other fundamental points of the network to serve more users and improve service experience.

What are the results of network maintenance work?

At another point in their dialogue with the press, the board explained the results of the maintenance work carried out in recent weeks by ETECSA.

In this regard, the Vice President of Network Operations reported that during these months, maintenance work was carried out to reduce problems with Internet browsing. “For example, users had a lot of problems navigating and had to turn on Airplane Mode all the time. Slow speeds, even on 4G, continue to affect the quality of service.”

He added that among the main actions taken is the replacement of new hardware with more processing power to increase the number of customers simultaneously connected to the mobile network.

“Certainly, capacity has been exhausted in the recent period by the exponential growth of mobile data services, without the possibility of expanding existing equipment, for which it was necessary to integrate and commission new equipment with better performance, which would completely eliminate the limitation due to lack of capacity.”

He said that over 1 million new user sessions were generated as a result of this action, so it was necessary to optimize processes such as traffic management and add processing cards to manage these new sessions.

“It is important to note that each connecting user generates more than one session, as there are applications running in the background and requesting simultaneous connections. Our network averages 1.6 sessions per user.”

The specialist noted that in parallel, the signaling layers received an increase in bandwidth and the replacement of several types of their equipment in order to simultaneously cope with both increased traffic and new connected users.

“On the other hand, the access layer has undergone important changes due to the optimization of signal processing and cell switching, as well as the provision of new capabilities. This includes the use of new frequencies.”

The young woman warned that, despite the financial constraints already explained on other occasions affecting investment, “we have not stopped growing in lots and new cells.”

“New frequencies have been added to ease restrictions, as well as new operators on the 1800 MHz frequency in places of greatest congestion. During 2023, 47 new 2G cells, 227 3G cells and a total of 1521 4G cells were added; It is convenient for our customers to use the 4G network for their data connections as it is the network capable of carrying the most traffic. As a result of these actions, the 4G network achieved a 25 percent increase in the installed base.

All of these actions imply not only the high cost of acquiring more equipment, but also the fact that each carrier added to the radio base is a license that is paid for.

Turn on new frequencies in your mobile network with 4G technology

Lydia Esther Hidalgo Rodriguez also announced that the 2100 MHz band has been integrated into sites in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas (provincial capital and Varadero) and Cienfuegos (provincial capital) with over 800 new cells.

“An added benefit has been the addition of new users to this network given the fact that there are terminals that do not support 1800 MHz.”

He also said that the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Isla de la Juventud have begun broadcasting the 700 HMZ frequency associated with the digital television program, which is a solution to expand access to mobile phone service, especially to rural areas. , where the signal has a greater range.

“It should be noted that for these provinces a lot of work has been done to replace the components of the radio bases: antennas in order to be able to radiate at new frequencies while maintaining the existing ones and not overloading the towers, changing cabinets. , adding processing maps and force elements, among other things. New carrier frequencies require new transmission capacities as well as increased power supply.

No less relevant were the changes applied to all base stations in the capital, announced and implemented in the first hours of March, when changes were made to the spectrum of the 900 MHz band used for 2G and 3G in order to redistribute and optimize its power, which made it possible to gain space at 10 MHz to be able to implement 4G technology on the same frequency.

“Currently, we are working on setting up various sites for 4G use in the 900 MHz band, especially those where there are large restrictions in traffic processing. Today, there are several radio bases in the Lisa area that are being used as a test case to set up their features such as load balancing and carrier aggregation. This is the first time we will operate on our network, 4 operators in 4G technology, 2 in 1800 MHz, 1 in 2100 MHz and 1 in 900 MHz. This new carrier will provide greater indoor range and reach more users. The tuning and tuning work, which covers all levels, is under completion, so we will begin work to expand the use of this new frequency in the near future and thus continue to increase the capacity of the network to process traffic.”

He said that the scale of the installed network and the work carried out in recent weeks, allow a total of 2.2 million users to simultaneously connect to the network. This value, which is constantly growing, means that the tasks of optimization, network expansion and system maintenance should continue in the coming months.

The specialist came to the conclusion that all activities that are carried out, both for the acquisition of equipment and licenses, and for the contracting and payment of international capacities that are used to expand Internet access, require the payment of high levels of foreign exchange, which must be guaranteed. with the income that ETECSA can generate in that currency.

“The main purpose of using these capacities is returning to services, access to which is carried out mainly by the population and subjects with payment in CUP. This complicates the return on investment and limits the pace of its implementation, which is a fundamental problem that ETECSA must face in the current economic conditions, when the global crisis and the blockade of North America increasingly prevent access to new sources of funding and technologies. .

(Taken from Cubadebate)

Source: Juventud Rebelde