Boosting Our Capacity: Seminar On 4g Mobile Communication Network Planning & Optimisation For Developing Countries

Over the past months, several staff of the eGovernment Agency seized the opportunity to develop and strengthen their ICT and related skills. These opportunities came in the form of ICT-based training courses/seminars sponsored by the governments of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of South Korea, and the Republic of India. This series of articles will focus on each participant’s reflection on the experience.

Today, Mr. Robin Ally, an ICT Engineer within the Infrastructure Division of the Agency, shares his recent experiences and lessons learnt from his participation in the “2016 Seminar on “4G Mobile Communication Network Planning & Optimisation for Developing Countries” in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The three-week seminar, which began on the 8th September, 2016, included participants from South Africa, Kenya, Nepal, Iran, Egypt, Philippines, Cuba, Cameroon, Venezuela and Panama.

The seminar focused on technologies such as Fiber to the Home (FTTH), LTE solutions and Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) solutions; and China’s plans to develop their SMART City environment. There were also field trips to the Wuhan Research Institute (WRI), Fiber Home Factory and Fiber Home Testing Facilities. On these trips I was fortunate to experience how the equipment is made; starting from the blank circuit boards to the finished product for deployment and testing of field antennas.

I also travelled to Yichang and Beijing where we had many fascinating cultural experiences and field visits. Among the places visited were The Wuhan Zoo, The Temple of Heaven and The Great Wall just to name a few.