3G Auction in Pakistan - Get Ready

Reliable sources from the PTA have confirmed that preparations for the long-awaited 3G spectrum has once again started with a hope to complete the entire process within 6 months from now, a report on the back page of today's Express Urdu edition said. A similar report was published on Express Tribune on 18 Aug 2012 (http://tribune.com.pk/story/423595/3g-auction-process-to-be-completed-by-december/) that quoted Farooq Awan, Chairman PTA, as saying that he was quite optimistic about the introduction of 3G/4G services by December 2012.

The government should realize the importance of this technology, that would serve as catalyst for the nation's economy and employment in all sectors of the industry, not just the technical sector. A plethora of business activities is sure to start after the auction that on one hand would give a strong boost to the economy and on the other hand would be introducing an altogether new customer experience with stronger data speeds. With Android phones already in the market, online shopping, navigation services and social networking applications are expected to be the upcoming market that universities, students, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Pakistan should start preparing for!

SACCH Frame in GSM

SACCH Frame holds special importance in GSM as it contains vital control information regarding the network. The SACCH is transmitted after 12 frames (no 13) of a 26 Traffic Multiframe. 12 frames before and after SACCH carry voice traffic whereas the 26th frame is idle that distinguishes two traffic MFs. SACCH is thus called an associated channel as it traverses along with the voice traffic.

SACCH contains signaling information such as Power control information, timing advance (TA) and other control related data. 4 SACCH frames form a SACCH Multiframe (480 ms). SACCH frames are used in the triggering of Radio-Link Timer (RLT) Counter that is directly related with the quality of a call. If a SACCH frame is not decoded sucessfully, RLT Counter is decremented by 1, whereas successful decoding of the counter increments it by 2. The call drops when RLT Counter is reaches the value of zero.