This morning the mobile phone operator Orange Romania made a demonstration of a technology that will allow the achievement of internet browsing speeds of up to 1 Gbps in Romania, the operator's CTO declaring that it could be officially launched in our country by 2020.
We are talking about the speeds currently offered by fixed internet service providers, i.e. including those from Orange in certain areas of the country, and reaching such speeds on mobile phones depends not only on the operators, but also on the manufacturers of smartphones or tablets.
Orange says that we will be able to download files from the Internet at speeds up to 1 Gbps and we will be able to upload data at speeds of up to 150 Mbps, the current network needing a major upgrade to be able to offer such performance, but of course Orange has the necessary resources to offer us such a technological advance.
1 Gbps on the smartphone, from dream to reality
This morning the people from Orange Romania did the first demonstration for a 1 Gbps mobile network in our country using Huawei equipment, which are also partners in this project of the operator, but preparations for the launch of such networks have been taking place for some time within Orange.
"In 2020 at the latest, we could see this technology in Romania at a commercial level. It may appear even sooner if the appetite of users and the evolution of the industry will allow it. Such a technology will probably require a technological upgrade of the access and transport network, of the basic equipment (core) of the network. It is the first test done in Romania."
Orange currently has 10 million customers, and 65% of them use a smartphone to access the services of the mobile network, so we are talking about approximately 6 million people who are active in the network from a smart phone.
Although we do not know how many of these 6 million people use Orange's 4G network, the operator's representatives stated that 71% of 4G traffic is made from smartphones, so we are probably talking about several million people who actively access the network to surf the internet.
What we have and what we will have
At the moment, Orange Romania offers limited access to a 4G+ network of up to 300 Mbps, but most of the network is capable of providing internet browsing speeds of up to 150 Mbps, so switching to an infrastructure that will offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps will require a sustained effort.
Although Orange Romania announces the launch of these services from now on, they will initially appear in Bucharest and then in other large cities, so the deadline of 2020 could be offered for availability in the capital, the expansion to other cities may require a period much longer time.
