Earlier this month Econet whitelisted all its customers for 5G and we ran speed tests on it and got an impressive 266Mbps down and 27.8Mbps up. A few days ago, we got to play with a Starlink kit and it gave us 131Mbps down and 2.83Mbps up.
This is all in Zimbabwe, my friend.
Those are really impressive speeds right there. Even the 2.83Mbps upload speed on Starlink. VSAT is known for slow upload speeds and 2.83Mbps is right up there with the best out there.
Of course, virtually none of us are actually experiencing those speeds. Econet’s 5G is only available in a few areas in the country and even fewer of us have 5G capable devices. So, we aren’t really enjoying the 266Mbps download speeds.
Starlink is not even officially available in Zim and one has to jump through certain hoops to get it here. I don’t imagine we have 10 people in the country using Starlink at the moment. So, most of us are not enjoying 131Mbps speeds.
While we wait to get to experience those kinds of speeds, the Chinese are just out here showing off. To me, it felt like we Zimbabweans were getting ready to celebrate our 2004 Honda Fit reaching the border when we found out that our neighbour, China, just placed an order for a $1m Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6.
We can still celebrate our Fit almost getting here but news of a 6×6 G Wagon possibly sharing the streets with our Fit in the future somewhat deflates our bliss.
China tests 300Gbps wireless internet
It bears repeating, China tested 300 Gigabits per second ultra-fast wireless internet.
That doesn’t sound right. Three hundred gigabits per second. My friend, if it were 300Mbps I would be impressed. 300 Gigs per second is just, I mean, I don’t even know how to wrap my head around what that means.
At 300Gbps you can fill up your 1TB hard drive with downloads in less than 30 seconds. You know how even on unlimited plans, there is a fair usage thing that comes into effect when you exceed 1TB in usage? Well, with 300Gbps you can get into fair-use jail in less than half a minute.
I mean, do you even use 300GB per month? Very few of us do. We recently saw that the average Zimbabwean uses about half a gig (500MB) per month. Guess we don’t need 300Gbps yet.
6G
What China is already working on is 6G. Right as Zimbabwe finally gets a toe in the 5G business. 5G is still taking its baby steps globally. It’s still kind of a mess and yet work on 6G is not hampered in the least bit.
The 300Gbps that the Chinese tested is 15 times faster than the current 5G standard. Millimetre wave 5G has a theoretical maximum speed of 20Gbps.
To achieve their bonkers 300Gbps, the Chinese used terahertz (THz) frequencies, which are even higher than the 30-300gigahertz that 5G uses.
You may be wondering, won’t those THz frequencies be problematic? See, the millimetre waves that 5G uses are easily blocked. They can’t penetrate anything and so one needs line of sight to enjoy 5G speeds in the Gigs per second range.
Well. THz are even weaker. Water and some other materials we interact with daily absorb THz waves. Meaning using THz frequencies will result in even poorer ranges than 5G.
Even with that reality, the Chinese are confident that they can overcome these challenges.
Also read:
5G is terrible right now. But it has a very useful and exciting future
30 comments
And Zim struggles with WhatsApp bundles at 3G / 2G speeds smh
Careful not to shake that head too much, might break your neck.
Well, if you’re gonna be browsing circles inside the great firewall, you might as well have all the speed 🤷🏾♂️
🤣🤣 I’d rather have our snail speeds and access to the full internet.
It could have been better if @goldmafia had done a swap and top deal on Zimbabwe with the Chinese & we will be happily enjoying this lightning THz experience, downloading and uploading in ZhingZhong not this wretched staggering 2G i have now in Bushu.
Others are busy investigation in quantum tech and we are here under a tree singing “… Zimbabwe ndeyeropa..”, tapedza tobva tanzi “..i was using decoys..”🥴
No wonder why tiine ‘strongest’ currency in the region…
Someone had set chain of backwardly coded exponential mutation and extreme DNA corruption in our minds that we find it deadly hard to have even at least 1G network coverage in some remote parts of the country 😭😭😭😭… 6G vs No Signal, #visionmafia
But Zimbabwe ndeyeropa ka shamwari 😂. Seems most people are really getting 2G speeds out here.
We will have to wait probably in the year 2050 to get those speeds and technology here in Zim if the current status quo remains.
When the world has moved on to 12G or something.
As we are speaking Us is now using X-Finity 10G smart phones. #WWE BACK-LASH pay per view did advertised the 10G network through out the Event
Life is so difficult in Zimbabwe for many folks to even have the intellectual curiosity or critical thinking. Some have buried their heads o whatsapp or Facebook groups. Many Zmbabweans are mired in poverty have taken refuge in these fraudulent Churches to distract themselves from their hardships. Some have resorted to witch doctors. You can check all the evidence on Facebook, like those who made some women pregnant donkey years ago and now are trying to make amends on the instructions of witch doctors who would have said that’s the only to reverse the men’s string of bad luck.
So really caring about 5G is kind of a stretch when some can’t even afford to go on whatsapp for weeks at a time. I can’t recognize fellow Zimbabweans whether family or acquaintances. I can now find it easier to believe someone would kill their parent or sibling in order to get out of poverty.
So really caring about 5G is kind of a stretch when some can’t even afford to go on whatsapp for weeks at a time. I can’t recognize fellow Zimbabweans whether family or acquaintances. I can now find it easier to believe someone would kill their parent or sibling in order to get out of poverty.
So caring about 6G is the last thing on most Zimbabweans’ minds
Jealousy and hatred are the most popular deadly sins in Zimbabwe. People are now afraid to post about their lives or good fortune because of hatred and jealousy blowback. If a person smiles at you it doesn’t mean they don’t wish you ill-will. Ghosting and all sorts impoliteness in online engagements are now normalized.
For some of us these tech advances are the escape from reality we crave. We know it’s gonna be decades, if we ever experience some of this stuff in our lifetimes but it’s still pretty cool to see.
This is the second or third time I have heard of Econet whitelisting 5G but I am yet to find a Samsung that can access the 5G network. I have even went to Econet and they failed to provision my s22 ultra and Z fold 3. Apparently the guys from the Econet shop and those at the backend had no explanation why I couldn’t get my devices provisioned.
We have engaged them on what’s really going on. Will update you soon.
Well it’s fine, but 300gbps is it safe for people to use it no any harm to human? What im sure is chine companies do not care about safety. As african nation we need to be in Tech race to make sure What ever is being invented will not affect our health and environment. Let them test that 300gbps in china
Apparently, “Terahertz radiation is not ionizing radiation and its low photon energies in general do not damage living tissues and DNA. Some frequencies of terahertz radiation can penetrate several millimeters of tissue with low water content (e.g., fatty tissue) and reflect back.” So in terms of safety, we might be good.
I don’t know if it’s because of the economy or what but our telecoms have to upgrade. They fail to provide 4g without interruptions, what about if the majority acquires 5G. On the other hand it would render our 10gb data useless as most people can’t afford higher packages and even 100mbs would mean that with appropriate usage the data wouldn’t last
Sometimes I find it funny that if I got the speeds I cry for, I would deplete my monthly data plan in minutes. But life is not about downloads only. It’s about enjoying scrolling through social media without waiting for that pic from your mommadem to load. So, it’s not everything we do that would deplete data. We just want a better experience.
This life is not worth living, I lost the lottery of life the day I was born in Zimbabwe, and after that I lost the lottery again and got born in a poor family, suffering is my daily meal , hope is my curse , I cannot stop hoping only to get annihilated by reality
It’s still worth living my friend. You’d be surprised how life can turn around.
But one must not be a p*** in the face of Reality , like many before me , I will keep fighting
That’s the spirit.
Lived in china best internet access and super affordable data plans 6usd-15usd gets you easily 100gb or 200gb upto 500gb per depending on you plan 4G in china is fast af
its funny that China is now working on 6G ven thoughtheir neighbours still hold the world record for the fastest internet of 319 tbps kkkkk
What’s the point. They are up to their necks in firewalls and internet regulations and restrictions. What do I need 300Gbps if I can’t criticize the government with it lol
My friend 😂…
Technical food for thought – Currently the fastest available consumer SSDs can transfer data at speeds of just over 7 GB/s. The time it takes to transfer 1TB of data to an SSD at these speeds would be a more than the 30 seconds you estimated, typically around 2-3 minutes. Why happens when the data transfer into a network device is more than the transfer rate to the storage device. Does RAM come into play? DDR5, the latest version of DDR, can provide up to 6.4 Gbps per pin, with a total bandwidth of up to 102.4 GB/s. Still below our Chinese 300Gbps.
Begs the question are there computer or information technology that cam handle 300 GBs?
I was trying to figure out 300mbps & 300gbps is ther a difference? I mean zvalafanana here ?