Editor’s note: LiewCF Tech Blog is invited by DiGi to get the 1st hand information about the DiGi Network Modernization plan (DiGi The Tomorrow Network), which will expand their network and offer more stable network, as well as LTE (Long Term Evolution) ready. Read on for Joshua Tee’s report.
Few days ago, a few bloggers and I (Joshua Tee) got the opportunity to sit down with Jaime Chee, Head of Radio Access Planning of DiGi Telecommunication and talk about their major network plan codenamed D’Nemo which is short for “DiGi Network Modernization” plan. The plan also known to public as DiGi The Tomorrow Network.
DiGi Tomorrow Network
Starting from December 2011, DiGi Telecommunication had already started to install a whole new set of equipment in their network tower. The process will be going on throughout 2012 and they will be doing this to all of their sites which there are over 5000 of them.
This massive upgrade project is happening because of the recent congestion of the network, I believe many would agree that DiGi’s call quality had drop a lot recently, and as a respond to that, DiGi decide to expand their network to offer a more stable network, providing clearer voice call and more consistent speed and Internet browsing experience.
The new network upgrade also have the aim to expand the Internet coverage to most of the populated areas in Malaysia. So expect by the end of next year, you will be enjoying at least EDGE internet coverage everywhere you go all over Malaysia. This will be a good news for those who stay in smaller town or kampung, finally we know soon that we are no longer need to suffer from the turtle speed GPRS network.
One of the very exciting point of the upgrade project is, all the equipment installed will be LTE (Long Term Evolution) ready, which means when DiGi is awarded with the LTE license, they can switch on and enable possibly nationwide LTE network within a short period. Currently they are still having the POC (Prove of Concept) testing, and the result is very exciting! Some can get up to 100Mbps down using on the LTE network.
For those tech geeks, you might be interested to know that the new equipment that DiGi is installing on their base site all over Malaysia will be ZTE Single RAN (Radio Access Network) box. There is no longer a need for separate box for 2G & 3G network. The ZTE box will handle all 2G, 3G and LTE network in the future.
The new hardware also give another benefit to everyone which is the new equipment is much greener and energy-efficient compared to the old boxes. By doing this nationwide, the energy save is every year will be significant. DiGi is doing this with the aim of bringing a better world to our future generation.
With all the benefit said, DiGi also state that there will be some down time when they are doing the upgrade. Depends on the site, they will need to switch off the old hardware, and install the new hardware, set it up and do some network optimization before their customer can ride on their brand new network. They will tell their customers about the downtime and service interruption, and you can also check the place list on their website.
For more information about the DiGi The Tomorrow Network upgrade, you can check their FAQ and their website at www.digi.com.my/tomorrownetwork
Editor’s note: I am living in a town with poor DiGi 3G network, I am excited to see DiGi finally decided to do major network upgrade, plus LTE ready. Malaysians are expected to get 1st public LTE service in 2013.
DiGi Tomorrow Network is LTE-ready is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.