3G Is About Plain Bandwidth

[Andy Sjostrom]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=100410&threshold=-1' target='_blank'>http://www.thefeature.com/article?a...10&threshold=-1</a><br /><br /></div>3G is not about video calls, MTV or location based services with maps updated in real time. 3G is about plain bandwidth. Data being pushed faster back and forth through a bit pipe.<br /><br />The Feature has a brief but interesting article on the subject: "After months of being subjected to commercials of "stupid people making pointless video phone calls," Vodafone and T-Mobile have both launched 3G in the UK as data-only services. Many pundits, especially in the gadget world, saw these data-only launches as soft launches. It was generally regarded as a way for carriers to test and make a little money on their new 3G networks until the long-awaited handsets arrived. But Chris has a different view- by launching as a data only service, T-Mobile and Vodafone are nailing the business class users, skipping video calls in favor of the fast data that power users want so desperately."<br /><br />Here is my message to Windows Mobile Product Managers and device makers:<br />I want Windows Mobile based devices that support 3G! Not because I would look for any particular new "3G application feature" but because it would increase bandwidth. Based on increased bandwidth, users and developers will surely find use for it. Don't fall into the same old carrier trap (there is a mobile internet and then there is the Internet). There is only one true Internet and there are many ways to access it. 3G is about plain bandwidth. Anyone in Cannes listening?

[anthonymoody]

I couldn't agree more. While I've switched back to being a Palm guy for the time being (those MPx300 pix have me drooling), I feel the pain of current GPRS speeds all the time. I can't wait to get 'real' bandwidth any time, any where (or at least outside my home office!)

TM

[dMores]

until the long-awaited handsets arrived
excuse me?
austria's "3" carrier has had handsets for over a year now. the first generation sucked big time, crappy phones with even crappier batterylife (you actually got TWO batteries with your phone, since even in standby those two batteries together barely lasted a full 24 hours).
now we have a new generation of motorola phones with symbian OS, pretty much like the sonyericsson p900. they look rather sleek, they're powerful and they last a few days of normal usage.

i recently saw an article on tv where the head of germany's number one cellphone carriers (telekom) said they're just now releasing UMTS for data since there "aren't any umts handsets around yet".

i just find it amusing that a tiny country like austria has people video-telephoning and sport-clips-downloading for a "long" time where the rest of the world seems to think that it doesn't work yet.

however, i'd never think of video-calling someone. it's the most useless application one can think of. it hasn't worked on the pc, it hasn't worked on landline, and it won't work on a mobile phone.
now browsing the net on your laptop with near-DSL-speed is something i really long for.

[JvanEkris]

Location based services is a by-product of the new network. UMTS (= 3G) has a more detailed grid, with georeference-based posibilities build in. Therefore it becomes a lot easier to let your phone calculate its geographic position. It is already possible with 2,5G phones (especially Symbians are good at it due to their openness of their data), only it is less easy (now you need a database with acurate position of GSM poles, since the broadcasts don't tell where they come from), and cells are to big to work accuratly.....

Jaap

[DaleReeck]

Unfortunately, most carriers, at least in the US, seem to think that wireless internet is only for sending pictures of your kid to grandparents or sending pictures of a cheating boyfriend to their girlfriends. Or sending pictures to...well you get the idea. It's also why its next to impossible to get a phone these days without a camera. The major player data user is completely ignored.

However, not to be spokes-guy here, but there is one good thing. I have found that using Bitstream's ThunderHawk makes a huge difference in performance of GPRS. Using Standard web browsers like PIE is painfully slow over GPRS. But a proxy service, like ThunderHawk, makes web browsing actually useful. Data carriers won't move quickly to upgrade speeds in the hardware, so it will be up to third parties to do it in software.

[anthonymoody]

That's interesting Dale. Has TH updated their proxy servers or the way the software works? I haven't used it for about 6 months (switched back to Palm), but other than the landscape orientation, by the end of my PPC tenure I HATED TH because using the proxy server was S L O W. And having to reload a page every time you scrolled made it feel MUCH slower in practice.

TM

[foldedspace]

As far as browsing the Net on your laptop, wouldn't that be better dealt with using WiMax?

[Janak Parekh]

That's interesting Dale. Has TH updated their proxy servers or the way the software works? I haven't used it for about 6 months (switched back to Palm), but other than the landscape orientation, by the end of my PPC tenure I HATED TH because using the proxy server was S L O W. And having to reload a page every time you scrolled made it feel MUCH slower in practice.
They've slowly improved its performance. It's still not perfect, but in general, it should be faster than PIE.

--janak

[Chris Forsberg]

YES!!! Give us UMTS support in Pocket PC and Smartphone!

[yslee]

and make it cheap.. I'm paying through the nose for GPRS here. X_X

[Jonathon Watkins]

I'm paying through the nose for GPRS here. X_X

So where is 'here' then Yslee? :wink: Can't really tell I'm afraid.

[surur]

and make it cheap.. I'm paying through the nose for GPRS here. X_X

3G is not about bandwidth, its about separating people from their money. What WE would like to do is stream our MP3 collection from our home server to our handset and have your 300 GB collection available anytime.

What THEY want us to do is send an occasional VGA pic at $5 per megabyte and oversell the available bandwidth to too many people.

I'm sure "here" is somewhere in europe. I'm paying near $20 per month for only 9MB. Thats just about enough to surf BBC text only web site regularly, and maybe PPCthoughts (but I have to avoid long threads (so dont mention bluetooth :) )).

So we will see alot of hype, but it will never deliver properly to the geeks that actually KNOW what you can do with that bandwidth. They rather sell you a 384Kb connection so you can instant message and send e-mail with it.

Cynical maybe, but either they will price the knowledgeable heavy users out of the market, or ban them for "unfair usage of bandwidth"

Surur

[lonesniper]

I think 3G is going to fail (carriers going bankrupt cause of licence fees) if data is not prompted heavily and reasonable rates on use charged. Video calls are not the killer 3G application, data is and stuff like streaming TV probably will be to.

Here in the UK, I laugh everytime I see a new "3" (our 3G network) promotion. They have free handsets and half price tarrfis but people do not signup. Soon a "3" phone will be in my box of Cornflakes as free gift.

[yslee]

I'm sure "here" is somewhere in europe. I'm paying near $20 per month for only 9MB.

Ah, I'm not from Europe, but our rates are about the same. Stupidly expensive.

[ctmagnus]

I'm sure "here" is somewhere in europe. I'm paying near $20 per month for only 9MB.

And I'm paying $12CAD/2MB, but that's because the Canadian carrier with the "good" GPRS package has very limited coverage, with zero coverage here. And there're only two Canadian GSM carriers.

[ricksfiona]

I'm paying $20 for unlimited GPRS through T-Mobile and quite happy with it. Yes, streaming high quality MP3 via GPRS would rock, but it's really a toy and big gee wiz factor.

I was watching a show about the porn industry. I was watching the guy who's the President of Vivid, the big boy of porn video. He was saying that they have a service that uploads images of porn to a cell phone. When the technology improves, they will have streaming porn go straight to cell phones.

* The home VHS/video tape market went through the roof cause of porn.
* Internet traffic has gone through the roof mostly cause of porn (and spam).
* Many of the advanced technologies we use on the 'Net came from porn pioneers (secured credit card billing, streaming video)

If the Vivid guy wants to offer these new services via the cellphone, I'm putting my money on it. Porn has been the leading indicator of how new technologies will work for the masses AND their services aren't exactly cheap either.

[dMores]

i'm currently paying EUR2.50 per megabyte. but that's the plan with no monthly fee.
if i were to pay EUR10.00 per month, i'd be able to get EUR1.50 per megabyte, which is a little more than a dollar.

which is pretty cheap, but still not comparable to cable or dsl :)

also, the problem is that every connection to the gprs network is billed in 102.4Kb packets. which means that if i were to check my mail every 10 minutes, i'd end up paying for 5Mb per day that actually only had like 100Kb of effective data being transfered.
so it's cheaper to stay online all the time, which would mean that my cellphone would barely last the day battery wise.

this is all not yet very thought through, i hope we get the comfort we have learned to love from our home connections on the cellphone soon.

[juni]

Luckily one of our daughtercompanies is one of the biggest operators here, so gprs and cellphone and calls are free for me. :)

[Kitiara]

A subject close to my heart.

I was recently delighted to read that Vodaphone was releasing a 3G PCMCIA card, and was looking forward to getting my PDA onto a decent speed network.

You can imagine my disappointment at discovering that there are no PPC drivers available for the card, and even worse, no plans to release any.

It boggles me that Vodaphone would refuse to cater for the PPC market. Surely it cannot be so hard to produce PPC drivers???

Grumbling and praying for a sensible provider sometime soon, and looking at BT OpenZone in the meantime (I'm fortunate to work 30m away from a hotspot).