EDGE / GPRS / EVDO

In Bangladesh, the mobile phone companies emphasized mainly on voice service upto the end of 2005. Since then, the operators are introducing newer and modern technology to meet the data communication requirement of the clients. Other countries adopted those features long ago, specially the GPRS. GrameenPhone is the pioneer in introducing this type of data service to the people of Bangladesh. When GrameenPhone offered the service as a trial basis, Aktel announced the same sort of service… However, GP started staying a step ahead by offering EDGE where as Aktel started with GPRS. More over, after the trial period (to some selected users) GP’s service was available to both prepaid and postpaid customers. Aktel offered the service to both type of users recently prior to what the service was only available to the post paid users. Banglalink on the other hand offered GPRS to its postpaid Enterprise users from the beginning of 2007, depriving the prepaid and normal postpaid users. TeleTalk has offered reasonable packages for both prepaid and postpaid users. Infact teletalk is the only operator to offer unlimited usage package to the prepaid users also. Warid started its operation with the GPRS facilty, but yet to offer any unlimited usage package. Citycell, country’s only CDMA operator, has however started its data service after adopting CDMA 2000 1xRTT technology country wide. The data service technology by Citycell is known as EVDO (Evolution-Data Optimized). The service name is “My Citycell Zoom” and is only availble for the post paid users again depriving the prepaid users. Moreover, the package has flavor of both the time validation and data limit. This is not as cheap as the unlimited offers by the other operators nor as expensive as the Taka/MB offers.

Tariff plan for EDGE/GPRS/EVDO service:

General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) simply is an extension of the GSM standard to provide packet data services. It was introduced in late 2000. It can provide data rates from 56 to 114 Kbps and continuous connection to the Internet for mobile phone and computer users.

Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) is a radio based high-speed mobile data standard. It allows data transmission speeds upto 384 kbps to be achieved when all eight timeslots are used. In fact, EDGE was formerly called GSM384. This means a maximum bit rate of 48 kbps per timeslot. Even higher speeds may be available in good radio conditions.

EVDO or Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized (often abbreviated as EVDO, EV-DO, EvDO, 1xEV-DO or 1xEvDO) provides fast wireless broadband (3G) internet service. EVDO is based on the 1xRTT standard, which is available in almost all cell phone coverage areas and provides Internet speeds of about 2-3 times that of dial-up (about 60K-100K).

A comparison between different Data Standards:

An advanced level article on this topic is available in the following link:

3g-mobile-communication-roadmap-and-a-problem 

89 thoughts on “EDGE / GPRS / EVDO

  1. bangladesh dosent have any EVDO. AKTEL is having EDGE trial run, anyone useing? speed? dont expect gp to improve anytime soon. they have too many users with relatively little bandwidth. and thet rangs building really did some damage.

  2. According to citycell, they are providing “My Citycell Zoom” service through EVDO, so its not true that Bangladesh doesn’t have any EVDO. Aktel always try to stay ahead, but actually they are always behind… GP EDGE is one of the best internet service now a days… I am posting this comment from my native village, and believe it or not, the internet service is as good as it is in Dhaka. The Download speed is around 20 Kilo Byte (160 kbps). Upload speed is around 12-15 Kilo Byte. And the mobility option is amazing!!! I could just imagine in my dream that, I’d be able to use internet from where I am right now. Grameen Phone’s extreme network has almost brought the whole country under the EDGE network. It was to happen, because I can remember that I mailed an email through my mobile phone’s browser back in December 2005 from Hiron point of Sundarbans. Can you even imagine any remote place like this having Aktel network? Right now there’s hardly any network signal of Aktel in my village (which is only 4 KM from the Main town).

    And about the Rangs building, There were hardly any problem with GP after two days of the Rangs Building incident.

  3. Hi:
    At January 07 i brought a n EDGE device from BCS Computer city. I couldn’t good support by EDGE / GP.
    Now want to buy zoom, before that i need to hear the using experience from hardcore user of ZOOM.
    If you user of zoom, please feel free to share your experience ..

    Skype, yahoo & MSN : afountainpen
    Google talk : colorexperts

  4. ACtually now a days GP EDGE SPEED is 6-8kbps
    AKTEL GPRS SPEED IS 3-4kbps
    Banglalink GPRS speed is 1-2kbps
    TELETALK GPRS Speed is 5kbps
    Mycitycll zoom speed is 10-15kbps

  5. No one can expect to get a better speed from GP edge unless they use an EDGE enabled set. Believe it or not, I’m getting 27 (216 kbps) Kilo Bytes of speed through GP EDGE using the SIEMENS S75 handset. But the speed may vary place to place depending upon the frequency (900, 1800 & 2100 Mhz) and network capability.

    As far as I know citycell zoom speed rises upto 20 Kilo Bytes. But I really didn’t like the Data transfer limit. 1500 taka for 5 GB data transfer!!! With GP I can download 5 GB in 5 days and don’t forget the EDGE fee is 1000 taka only (1150 Taka inclusive of VAT)

  6. GP EDGE SPEED is 6-8kbps
    Warid EDGE SPEED is 10-12kbps
    AKTEL GPRS SPEED IS 3-4kbps
    Banglalink GPRS speed is 1-2kbps
    TELETALK GPRS Speed is 5kbps
    My Citycll zoom speed is 10-15kbps

  7. Warid EDGE (Cover In Dhaka city) VS GrameenPhone EDGE (Covers all part of Bangladesh)

    Warid EDGE (nokia n80+zahi 50+unlimited EDGE) = 25~29Kbps

    GrameenPhone EDGE (nokia n80+explore 2+unlimited EDGE) = 15~19Kbps

  8. BTTB sucks and should be kicked out .submarine cable is not their jomidari .And submarines cables high bandwidth is not their baper property.I think BTTB should be dissolved imediately.Sucker BTTB DIE as soon as possible for keeping the price of bandwidth out of reach for us and keeping bandwidth available for only corporate and enterprises.(I mean good and fast bandwidth).Die BTTB again.

  9. All the bangladeshi mobile phone companies are assshole,teletalk state owned mobile company they can give us better facily in a very small price but they don’t want to,because thay are swine.there is no obstacles around my building but i dont receive better gprs facility.Can anyone tell me what will be a lowest price of a good Edge modem??

  10. I hate all internet services in dhaka.so slow that you go to sleep when downloading and they charge huge service for making us sleep. when ar we going to have fast internet service.We were excited that sub marine cable would get high speed servie but it is same as before.

  11. Anybody from Grameen phone or Aktel or Citycell reading this post please send this request to your High officials.It will be good for everybody in this country who uses internet for work or play .And sorry for galagali. HeLLO Motherfucker ,son of a bitch BTTB.I know you have terabytes or gigabytes of bandwidth available from submarine cable and wasting that.And you will not give us cheap bandwidth bitch.You are wasting all those bandwidth just because you dont want to give us cheap bandwidth.Seems you think this submarine cable and its Ultra speed bandwidth is your property motherfucker.For this reason I get this crap network speed.And my foreign friends in net and in multiplayer games makes fun of me for my net speed and complain i lag.You bitch BTTB how much i hate you.I URGE : immediately all MOBILE companies to be united and make a consortium or syndicate and ask the caretaker government to handover the submarine cable and fibre optic network’s control to them from BTTB.And yes you mobile companies must do this quickly because now there is a neutral caretaker government running Bangladesh and they will listen and understand the matter very well i think.Once they are gone and political parties return to power i think they will never give the control of Submarine cable to private mobile companies although they know BTTB is a corrupt and failed company.This mother fucker BTTB can not even provide security for fibre optic network.The only fibre optic network connecting the submarine cable to Dhaka gets cut every few days.And this bitch BTTB takes no Visible or serious action to safe guard the fibre optic CABLE.SON of A bitch BTTB.

  12. Yes, I agree with you all. BTTB should not control bandwidth of submarine cable. Actually we made sin by taking birth in this country. Till now I took 3 BB connection from 3 operators. All are very slow and costly. With Tk. 1500 per month we should have atleast 25KBPS but Selucus we born in this country which is full off Ass and corrupts policymakers!!!! I also tried GP edge, speed of its is slower than Onet dial-up. These asshole policy makers do not want this country go forward.

  13. Citycell hasn’t yet launched EVDO. They’ve finished trialing EVDO recently. The data service is going to be named “Zoom Evolution” which are EVDO CAPABLE MODEMS. The current Zoom modems are not EVDO capable, They are CDMA2000 1x capable. So whoever willing to use EVDO has to buy the new modems. EVDO Coverage is only for Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet city areas. Bandwidth is 2.4 Mbps. It’s planned for March ’08 launch. But I think it’s gonna be expensive as hell. Out of my reach.

  14. Citycell hasn’t yet launched EVDO. They’ve finished trialing EVDO recently. The data service is going to be named “Zoom Evolution” which are EVDO CAPABLE MODEMS. The current Zoom modems are not EVDO capable, They are CDMA2000 1x capable. So whoever willing to use EVDO has to buy the new modems. EVDO Coverage is only for Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet city areas. Bandwidth is 2.4 Mbps. It’s planned for March ’08 launch. But I think it’s gonna be expensive as hell. Out of my reach.
    By the way, O-Net dialup is way way better than GP EDGE.
    On nokia handsets Warid always shows E. Not G. Even when i was in my village. That means it’s EDGE. Much to our excitement…BTRC is arranging 3G frequency auction in June08. I would be very happy to see GP turning 3G.

  15. ARE you sure this citycell EVDO service named “ZooM Evolution” will really have speed of 2.4 MBPS?I am asking because already they have lied and hyped about their CDMA2000 1X internet service.Their customer care service tells always that CDMA2000 1X internet service has speed above 100 KBPS but in reality their speed is 10-20 KBPS.So how can you be sure that their this new service “Zoom Evolution” will really deliver 2.4 MBPS speed.I think it is unlikely and rather day dreaming to expect that kind of speed will be delivered to users like us and what ever Citycell will be advertising about their new “Zoom Evolution” will probably be hyped and lie.And any way if they continue to limit download amount like 5 gigabyte a month then what good will be that Extra speed you are talking about.Because at 2.4 MBPS(If its truely goona be that speed i just dont believe it is goona be that good)i can download 5 gigabyte in 35 minutes.So after that they goona charge me kb/2paisa thats outrageous and insane.And do not forget that their packages are costliest among the mobile internet service providers.So Rashed i am sure you will agree with me on these points.And the future is not that bright for us mobile internet service users.Only light of hope i see is BTRC start selling licences of 3G frequency to all mobile operators(not just grameen or citycell) for low fee as early as possible and most importantly BTTB must lower the prices of bandwidth to ISPs and to Mobile companies, other wise we the users will be paying same high prices that we are paying for such poor internet services now.

    GP EDGE SPEED is 6-8kbps
    Warid EDGE SPEED is 10-12kbps
    AKTEL GPRS SPEED IS 3-4kbps
    Banglalink GPRS speed is 1-2kbps
    TELETALK GPRS Speed is 5kbps
    My Citycll zoom speed is 10-15kbps

    See what bad services we are getting for such high prices.

    Some of my foreign friends in europe get 200 KBPS for 30 euros per month(2940 Bangladeshi TAKA) and 100 KBPS for 15 Euros per month(1470 Bangladeshi TAKA). So if you compare their net speed and price of 200 KBPS FOR 2940 Bangladeshi TAKA then you can easily understand what speed we should get For 1000-1500 TAKA(Grameen Phones and Citycells internet service charge)per month.Atleast 75-100 KBPS net speed should be provided to us, users for that much Taka(1000-1500)that we are giving to all these ISPs and Mobile companys.

    I hope the picture is clear and sad.

  16. In a newsletter of citycell, they mentioned that their Data carrier backbone will be EVDO which will have a data rate upto 1.5 mbps. But they are using 1xRTT now.
    There has been a problem understanding the data rate described by the providers. In most of the cases they mention it in kbps (Kilo bits per second) which is infact one eighth of the KBps (Kilo Byte per second). And I believe they mentioned the rate in kbps (kilo bits). Therefore 100 kbps is equal to around 12-13 KBps, which we get when we measure Internet speed. A very good site where you can measure both your download and upload speed is http://www.speedtest.net where you’ll get your speed measurement in kbps (Kilo bits per second).

    I can see many a people complaining about GP’s edge speed. Some say it is not more than 5, some says 14 and here in my area it is almost 26/27 Kilo Byte (Yes KBps). As mentioned in some of earlier replies, There should be edge network and also an EDGE enabled set to get the EDGE speed. There are some handsets which shows “G” when in gprs network and “E” when in EDGE network (eg. Motorola v361, Sony ericsson K790).

    About the cost of Bandwidth, it is still very high. The dream which we had that- after having the submarine cable we’ll be flying, is still a dream for us. Let’s hope our policy makers will understand how to get the full use of the SEA_ME_WE-4.

  17. last night i was in chat with one friend from Romania and as i asked him about his net speed and cost per month he said he is getting net speed of 2 mega bytes per second and the cost was 9 Euros(900 bangladeshi TAKA per month).Man can you see what service they are getting and when i said my net speed is 5-10 kilobytes per second and cost almost same as him he was surprised and said OMG=Oh My God.I usually get this response from friends like him when i tell them my net speed.So sad.

  18. HASIB i used N90 For gp and so what are you talking about!EDGE set or GPRS set the speed gonna be the same because they cannot even give the bandwidth that makes use of full bandwidth of gprs (i think gprs maximum bandwidth is around 50+ kilo bytes).So anyway may be you are just lucky that where you live people dont use internet on mobile too much.i think thats why you get 26/27 kilo bytes second.And you didnt say was it constant speed or not.I am almost sure its not.Constant!i dont think that we can get that from mobile companies and isps unless ofcoure you get a dedicated line for very high cost.And where the place you live?.I dont get more than 2-10 kbps and thats not constant it goes up and down but most times down to around 3-5 kbps in Dhanmondi area.So you must live in some special area to get that much bandwidth.!

  19. friend only 3G alone will not guaranty you that you get a fast and cheap net.But BTTB also need to lower the bandwidth price substantially (lets say 50% atleast but latest news is they decided to lower bandwidth price only 20% from february) only then ISP and Mobile Internet service provider companies can give you low cost fast bandwidth.

  20. hello
    i am 15(age),
    well some of u ppl are making some mistakes in kbps and Kilobytes per second
    as for that guy hasib his calculation of internet speed is correct. lemme give u guys some summary
    1byte=8bits
    1024bytes=1 kilobyte(kb)
    1024kb=1 megabyte(mb)
    1024megabyte=1 gigabyte(gb)
    1024gb= 1 terabyte (tb) and bla bla bla

    now the main theme is that the differece between Kbps and KBps kbps is kilobits per second and KBps is kibbits per seconds
    well i dunno anything about kibbits but i know about kilobits per second
    1kilobit=1000bits
    this means an internet speed which is 64Kbps mean it downloads at the speed of 64kilobits per second! and that means..
    64×1000=64000bits per second
    64000/8=8000bytes per second
    8000/1024=7.8125 kilobyte per second
    therefire 64kbps internet speed mean 7.8125kilobyte per second an so on…
    i have EDGE of GP and i was good…speed 240kbps(plz calculate urself) and now at the moment there some FUCKING problem with my internet this it is soooo slow 1kb per second!!2-3 kb per second i dunno what hapnd to grameen phone i gotta check ..if u guys know anything about the connection problem sum1please post a comment here and send me an email at fahadbd_6@hotmail.com and plz dont add me in msn!!!just email me!! i dun wana increase jonoshokha(population) in my contack list!! sty in touch with email and if i want i will add u…
    another thing that is latency rate…the response responce from server…i have seen bangladesh the latency rate is too high that is the reponse from a server takes a lots of time that is 800-2000ms!!:(
    so i cant play counterstrike game 🙁 🙁 the latency should be atleast 20ms-100ms 🙁
    so if any one have any information about latency and bla bla please email me!@!!!! please please
    i live in chitagong and tell me how will i get a better connection with low latency rate!!
    and another thingy is that the upload and download speed varies for eg 64kbps/128kps means 64kbps upload speed and 128kbps download speed so be careful!!
    can anyone gimme more information on fibre optic network please send me email again ROLF!
    in chitagong AAFFFCOSS!! and how to install then bla bla and the light thingy how kool is it lol and how to connect fibre optic in my pc and bla bla and also temme where to get fibre optic cable in ctg?? i live in shugandha!!!!!!!!! at the moment so some of u dont think that i am living in coxbazar or sumwhere so u will give me location of cable in cox bazar and i not mad that i will go to cox bazar from shuganda(or muradpur to make it more familiar whr shugandha is) to buy cables!!
    so give a near location like GEC more yada yada!
    thank u very much!

  21. i have been using business solution for a while. i live in sylhet and for some reason internet has become very slow for few days. used to get to get 15-20kbps before. i use nokia n72.

  22. People here is some good news i hope this news materialise soon or i will be disapointed very much.

    And if this news becomes reality then the monopoly on bandwidth and its high price by stupid F””” jackass BTTB will end.I pray for that.D

    Hope to play multiplayer games smoothly with out getting insulted by other players for lag(Because this f””” jackass bi”’ BTTB wont make internet bandwidth as cheap as they are in India or any other of our neighbour countries like Srilanka Pakistan etc.

    this is a quote from the reputed newpaper the daily star it published on 02-03-08.:

    Published On: 2008-03-02
    Business
    First private submarine cable on cards
    BTRC to seek proposals from stakeholders this month
    Star Business Report

    The telecom watchdog has decided to allow a submarine cable in the private sector, enabling the ICT and cellphone users to get cheaper services.

    Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is likely to start the process this month seeking proposals from prospective private sector stakeholders.

    The ICT (information and communication technology) businessmen anticipated a significant reduction in internet charges, as the monopoly of state-owned BTTB, the sole owner of the country’s single submarine cable, will go after the private sector steps in.

    BTRC Chairman Manzurul Alam said, “BTRC will invite proposals from the private sector by this month and there will be an open auction on completion of the scrutiny of all such proposals.”

    The whole process of establishing a private sector submarine cable will complete by the year-end, he said.

    The government would not bar any intending private company from laying a submarine cable to connect the country with another undersea cable, he said.

    The need for an alternative submarine cable has been a much-talked-about issue among the stakeholders of ICT and mobile telephone sectors just after Bangladesh’s joining the information super highway in May 2006.

    Such a need has become stronger on disconnection of the existing on-land optical fibre line for at least 2 dozen times since its inception. This disconnection has resulted in a severe disruption in telecommunication and internet connections which led to a business loss of crores of taka.

    The present landing station is connected to Dhaka through a 433-km optical fibre line.

    BTRC sources said some officials of the commission already visited the Philippines to examine the viability of a private sector submarine cable.

    The second cable will ensure redundancy of trunk cable, availability of restoration facilities for the existing cable SEA-ME-WE-4 (SMW-4).

    “Besides this, BTTB’s monopoly over the present cable will be reduced and thereby the internet charges might be reduced to a tolerable level as it will have to compete with the new one,” an official of BTRC said.

    The official said some companies including India’s BSNL, Reliance Communications, talked to the BTRC to provide an alternative submarine cable services to Bangladesh.

    Talking to The Daily Star, Rafiqul Islam Rowly, president of the Bangladesh Association for Software and Information Services (BASIS), said the private sector submarine cable will not only bring a back up for the existing one but also help get internet connection at a competitive price.

    The BTTB has recently reduced internet tariff charges by 20 percent to 40 percent in different slabs in a bid to accelerate the growth of the country’s ICT sector.

    But the ICT stakeholders are not happy. They said it should be reduced as like as India.

    An internet subscriber has to pay Tk 20,000 a month for above 2 mbps (mega bits per second) dedicated internet connection to BTTB. But in India, a subscriber pays hardly Tk1,800 (in Bangladesh currency) for the same connection.

    Bangladesh connected itself to the International Information Super Highway last year by joining an international consortium of 16 telecom operators, which installed the undersea cable at a cost of $35.1 million.

    See friends indians getting 2 megabits(probably 256 kilobytes per second)for only 1800 taka(Bangladeshi).So we bangladeshi people are not richer than people of India.So there is no logic for BTTB to make us internet users to pay for 1000-1500 taka for poor bandwidth of 2-3 or 4-5 kilobytes per month.

    I hope government’s intention to make BTTB a private company also becomes reality.I want to enjoy Multi player gaming as other countrys’s people are enjoying with out paying excessive charges for internet.

    and the link to the above published news is here :http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=25725

    cya all ha ha he he ho ho

  23. btrc is telling there would be 3g demonstration by some operators (not disclosed) soon, probably by first half of this year – as per btrc chairman on ntv interview few days back. but as per btrc chairman, they are more emphasizing on wimax, rathe than 3g. wimax would be no doubt, a huge project and will take considerable amount of time. on the other hand, 3g could be quickly available to end-users since the set-up is almost ready for those operators – so far i heard.

    i would like to know when this demonstration will happen and whether end-users could participate.

  24. Teletalk’s unlimited package really sucks. Too slow with frequent disconnects. I just wasted my time and money. Now, i switched to GP’s P2. its much more better then TT. GP now offering this package for prepaid users also. I get 20-25 Kbps having NOKIA 5200 EDGE. i heared that WARID providing better speed than GP. Is it true?

  25. to babu,
    i heard that warid is providing 10-15 KBps which fixed.

    for gp, i hardly got a fixed good speed with my nokia 3110c (edge clas 32), most of the time it was below 10.

    since u r getting 20~25, this is just great.

  26. WIMAX! thats cool.Much better than 3G i think but surely will be hell of a lot costly for users to get subscribed initially if it comes in Bangladesh.Anyway 3g for mobile is good or atleast better than EDGE and GPRS internet service

  27. its just teletalk who can only provide the service of using 10-15 days of unlimited using.its really great for us(student)
    gp or warid should intoduce ths service.
    and everyone should remember that teletalk is our company
    so dont cross the limit

  28. hi …I am using GP … P3….

    But I dont get above 5 kbps…
    Sometimes It is bout 1 kbps…

    What Can I do now…??
    if anybody know…plz inform me…….

  29. If you are using GP EDGE with their business solution package and not getting expected speed, then please call 12113 or 12114(Customer care number of GP for only internet) from your GP number and kick their stinky ass by using some mindblowing words!

    AND FOR ALL MOBILE OPERATORS:

    All the fuckers get money from us but not provide us expected speed….no matter whether you are living in density populated area or not. They should increase their bandwidth, alternatively they (mobile operators) should put both of their hands into their ass!

  30. If you are using GP EDGE with their business solution package and not getting expected speed, then please call 12113 or 12114(Customer care number of GP for only internet) from your GP number then please kick their stinky ass by using some mindblowing words!

    AND FOR ALL MOBILE OPERATORS:

    All the fuckers get money from us but not provide us expected speed….no matter whether you are living in density populated area or not. They should increase their bandwidth, alternatively they (mobile operators) should put both of their hands into their ass!

  31. you meant to say probably sony-erricsson mobile phone with edge modem functionality. that depends on models definitely, should be 7000+ taka anyway.

    you can also buy nokia 3110c, it has edge class 10 (upto 230 kbps) with all standard functions (fm radio+mp3/mp4+video+camera+infrared+bluetooth+usb etc.) with cost only 7000~8000 taka. i was using this and got good speed indeed.

  32. Arif thanks a lot bro,some of my frndz n cousinz
    gave me the same idea,and i hav xactly 8 thou wid me,cant afford much coz m still a studnt?take kr n thankx again

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