>Actually, EDGE does increase voice capacity somewhat. I can't remember
>how, though :0
I think this is only as an effect of being able to allocate less physical
resources to GPRS (and HSCSD) traffic. Since verry little is reserved for
GPRS today (I don't know how much but I would guess only one time-slot per
carrier and probably less if you have two carriers in the same cell). If
(when :-) MMS messaging takes of and more people start using WAP etc it will
be important to reduce the physical resources allocated to GPRS to keep the
capacity for voice.
I don't know (but someone on this list probably does) how they plan to use
EDGE to increase voice capacity. They would have to introduce quarter-rate
or improve the quality of half-rate.
What might be even more important, than increasing the capacity by changing
modulation, is the use of array antennas. I don't know to what extent this
is used today by the operators but array antennas can double (and more) the
capacity in a cell. My 2 cents is that this is the solution to capacity
problems in the future.
Johan
Received on Wed Oct 8 12:38:19 2003