Assessment of 3.5G network and Wireless broadband in developing world: Jordan as a case study

Abstract

The number of 3.5G (beyond third generation) users was emerged throughout the world during the last few years. This is because it provides very advanced services such as Wireless Internet broadband and good quality video/voice telephone calls. In developing countries, this service is still at the initial phase. There are still some obstacles facing people of these countries to use this new service. This paper provides an overview about 3.5G in these countries: Jordan as a case study. It also discusses people's expectations about this service via conducting a questionnaire targeted Internet users. The paper also presents a network assessment experimental test carried out to evaluate the network QoS at selected places of the area where this service is provided. The test was performed on three main network performance metrics: throughput, delay and packet loss.