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America's First WCDMA Call
k-hell writes "Ericsson and AT&T Wireless recently completed the first WCDMA/UMTS call in a live network environment in the Americas, capable of data transfer speeds of up to 384 Kbps. AT&T Wireless and Ericsson currently pursuing the path to 3G capabilities in the U.S. market by deploying EDGE-ready GSM/GPRS systems. This path ensures an evolution to EDGE, then UMTS, a wideband radio technology that provides mobile users with data rates up to 2 Mbps." This is not yet a strong enough reason to move to Dallas, though.
I'm using Sprint's PCSvision system right now (for this post in fact). It gets somewhere between 144 to 230 kbps (similar to ISDN) and is available right now. I have the unlimited service, which is $110/month-to-month. Pretty resonable, I use it on the road for business.
The only thing that's been kinda sucky so far is the slow upload speeds and it really sucks battery life out of a notebook...
Other than that, it works as advertised. Setup is a bit of a pain, but it's only been out for a month or so, so perhaps the next release of the software will fix that.
-- I don't have a cool sig.
I am one of the toughest critics of cellular operators, whom I believe are the weakest links in the value chain to create viable wireless data businesses. However, I don't think the cellular operators are -- or should be -- embarrassed about 3G vs. WiFi. The operators should be embarrassed about lots of things -- misleading the public about capabilities, marketing WAP as "wireless Internet," providing virtually no customer education, etc., etc. -- but not about the concept of 3G vs. WiFi. Some points of comparison: * WiFi was designed for local area networks. 3G was designed for wide area networks. * WiFi was designed for data. 3G was designed for voice and data. * WiFi emphasizes computing devices (laptops, desktops, PDAs). 3G emphasizes (so far) handsets; I hope the cellular industry gets more aggressive about promoting PC Card/Compact Flash radio modems and wireless-enabled PDAs for 3G. * WiFi uses non-licensed spectrum. 3G uses licensed spectrum. Businesses are often more wary of using unlicensed spectrum than licensed spectrum. * WiFi doesn't require corporations or home users to pay airtime charges for local usage. WiFi companies trying to develop nationwide paid access are still figuring out the business model. 3G (2G and 2.5G) requires local, national and international airtime charges. If the cellular industry fails to develop a viable business model for integrating WiFi with cellular and if public fee-based WiFi networks expand dramatically across the country, then it's possible that WiFi could steal some of the thunder and customers away from 3G data services.
WCDMA - Wideband Code Division Multiplexing Algorithm
UMTS - Universal Mobile Telephone System
3G - Third Generation Cell Phone System
GSM - Global System for Mobile Communications
GPRS - General Packet Radio Service
EDGE - Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution
Karma: Not Particularly Funny.
Here is the NTT (the telco doing trials of SOMA technology in Japan) tiral page: www.winq-kanazawa.net. But it's not much good if you don't read Japanese -- it does have a pretty picture of the client hardware.
-- bartman
Actually, their website claims 12MB/s. Nice. Sounds like they are based on WCDMA, but "enhanced for Internet performance". They have details on their radio protocol on their website. Apparently they have a trial running in the USA, in rural Oregon -- details here. I can't wait to see this stuff available for the general public!