Respondents Mobile Phone Usage

120
Voice calls
100
RESPONDENTS(%)

Social
80
Research/Other
60
40
20
0

LOCATION

Figure 4.5 Service usage

4.5.4 User perception of speeds between 4G and 3G systems

4G offers significant improvements in speeds compared to earlier systems. The respondents were
asked about noticeable changes in speeds between 3G and 4G systems. The responses are shown
in Table 4.7 and Figure 4.6 below. Though the KPIs may indicate improvements in speeds from
3G to 4G systems the users may not feel the same especially if the improvements are not so
significant. Most operators are faced with backhaul problems in their 4G systems. The speed of
network deployment is in most circumstances more than the speed of improving shared backhaul
facilities. This has the overall impact of limiting the performance of 4G systems. Users feel that
the system is not performing up to their expectations and this impacts negatively on QoE and may
result in high churn rate.

55