@Job, thanks to skunkworks, I can now take part in intelligent conversations with intelligent people talking about intelligent sounding stuff like ADMs, BSCs, MSCs and my ultimate favourite, DTMF! :-) If skunksworks was a person, I would make him my best friend!


On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Job Muriuki <muriukin@gmail.com> wrote:
Don't you love this list, all the tech stuff is very impressive anyway
give Zain a breather. Look at the incumbent in there sector, it has
all kinds of issues and Zain gets a rear tech hitch and you are quick
to judge. It has the best voice service in kenya.

On 10/6/09, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's not possible to comprehend the problem unless you understand the
> GSM Architecture in the light of what Nick has offered to be correct
> and heard the same from another reliable source. All Nairobi and
> greater Nairobi all the way to Kajiado is handled by a BSC site in a
> building within the CBD and is backhauled to Parkside where the MSC is
> located via fiber.
>
> As part of the transmission design they have Add Drop Multiplexers
> (ADMs) which provision STM connections depending on need and
> protection to the MSC site or other locations. It's these ADMs that
> failed causing the problem. This is would have been the case had it
> been a physical fiber break and it reveals need for additional
> transmission redundancy or protection as is commonly referred.
>
> It's not unusual for incidents like this to occur in normal operations
> of a GSM network and we should not be very harsh on them. The loss of
> business during this window is punishment enough.
>
> Kiania
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 9:48 AM, nick muttai <nmuttai@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Roy,
>> True that, but all hardware modules in a BSC are totally redundant (either
>> 1+1 or N+1 redundancy scheme) including the PCM interface
>> boards, providing
>> an automatic failover switch capability. This is true for all serious GSM
>> equipment vendors. So the services dependent on these modules shouldn't be
>> down that long especially for a big GSM provider like Zain and in
>> locations
>> like the CBD where the number of subscribers is humongous.
>> This is all based on a lot of theory and a little bit of observation so my
>> conjecture is open to correction.
>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 9:15 AM, Roy Michoma <roymichoma@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> u cant have redundant BSC's
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Alvin Jason Ochieng <ajochola@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> My line is also down & i have no bills pending !!! NKT !!!!
>>>>
>>>> On 10/6/09, nick muttai <nmuttai@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> A reliable source tells me that one of their their ADMs "died" Any Zain
>>>>> guy to confirm this?And how comes they  do not have redundancy on key
>>>>> BSC
>>>>> components and services?
>>>>> On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 8:21 AM, Jared Koyier <jaredkoyier@gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> SOLOMON....Surely do you think ZAIN anticipated an outtage at peak hrs
>>>>>> and let it take course? Most technical faults are never seen apriori
>>>>>> and it is unrealistic for a customer to be warned beforehand unless it
>>>>>> is a scheduled maintenance. Dont fry zain,they lost more biz than
>>>>>> majority of their subscibers due to that outtage.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 06/10/2009, Steve Muchai <smuchai@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> > On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 7:55 AM, Solomon Mburu <solo.mburu@gmail.com>
>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>> >> One strange thing, though, they didn't inform the consumers of an
>>>>>> >> impending outage.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > there was never an "impending" outage, it was an unexpected outage.
>>>>>> > They did send out an apology, thus acknowledging the incident,
>>>>>> > though,
>>>>>> > which I think is a good thing.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > BR,
>>>>>> > S
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Mwafrika
>>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Mwafrika
>>
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>
>
>
> --
>
> [Asentric Consulting Ltd]
>
> If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no
> matter what his birth ....
>
> -Richest Man in Babylon
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