We all have become used to mobile Internet. When EDGE came along the access bandwidth speeds became acceptable. UMTS and HSDPA have been deployed and LTE is on the horizon, promising even more speed.
But can these speeds be supported in real life? HDSPA is advertised with a download speed of max 3.6 Mbps (as my modem tells me at this moment) but I have never experienced anything close.
The reason might be the limitations of the backhaul network. There are approximately 25.000 antenna locations in the Netherlands. All traffic (voice and data) generated by mobile users connected to any particular antenna must be transported from the antenna location to and from the Internet (for data). In practice: to Amsterdam to locations near the AMSIX.
Only a few of these locations have a fiber based backhaul. Most of them have either a SDSL connection (2/2 Mbps) or a microwave uplink of 2/2 Mbps. For ALL data of ALL users. In some cases a lot of these microwave uplinks are concentrated into a 34 Mbps uplink to the next concentration level, where a fiber takes over.
It is clear that the advertised speeds can never be met without a serious upgrade of the backhaul network. Some operaters have started to do so, others are hesitating and asking for quotations. Some are hoping that the FttH-rollout will be quick enough so they can use this infrastructure for the upgrade: much and much cheaper than dedicated digging (many thousands of euros per mast).
One thing is sure: it will take time. In the meantime: don’t be surprised when you have some traffic jams in your mobile internet.
