Pilot pollution has hindered 3G speed and capacity in Somalia Mobile networks – operators are running at high cost

Telecommunication is Somalia is growing. Virtually 95% of all money transaction in Somalia go through mobile operators run by private sector. The downside of this E-money is that it is unregulated by the Somali central bank. Data services such as internet are also visible in every household.

As of today, 3G/4G networks are widely available in major cities in Somalia while 2G has been there for years in both urban and rural areas.

Most mobile operators lack the capacity to plan their network as per industry-standard. They also lack enough skills to properly select and audit of what they buy from vendors. Vendors cheat necessary licenses and various options in their product which force operators to be much dependent on the vendor and in that process lose significant amount of money.

Among the mobile technologies, 3G is most widely used for both voice and data in urban centers. Planning robust and high performance 3G networks always requires to be done carefully, as coverage and capacity are coupled and same spectrum is deployed in all sites. Furthermore, urban centers have many sites in close proximity which can cause interference and other issues.

Pilot pollution occurs as a result of many different servers at one place without anyone being dominant to others. Typical areas where pilot pollution is prevalent is illustrated in the following

Pilot pollution can also be caused by overshooting cells which are strong enough. If the active set size increase beyond 3, it can interference and missing neighbor issues.

Pilot pollution can be characterized by the high RSCP, quality level less than -15dBm, high downlink BLER, bad user experience when browsing the net, and high CDR due to ping-pong handover.

It is therefore recommended for operators to plan their networks using sophisticated planning tool coupled with human experience and judgment. Unfortunately, most operators opt for increasing system capacity at high cost, installing more sites without looking at below the bar and solve on what is really biting on their network. They could still increase speed and capacity by focusing on their existing infrastructure and fighting agains pilot pollution and other noise effect and hence save large amount of money.

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