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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.
AT&T Wireless and Ericsson currently pursuing the path to 3G capabilities in the U.S. market by deploying EDGE-ready GSM/GPRS systems.
Remember when your teacher told you grammar wasn't that important as long as you could get your point across? THEY LIED.
The meteoric demise of Metricom's Richochet service (which was unlike most dot-bombs run sincerely, and provided pretty good value) should make it pretty clear as to the demand for such fun.
That writeup is KOC*. It has a LOA** . WIKWTHTM***!
* Kind Of Confusing
** Lot of Acronyms
*** Wish I knew what the hell they mean
SONY. Because caucasians are just too damn tall.
As I see it, the biggest selling points for 3G data service are the availability and security associated with it. While one can never be completely secure over anything wireless, certainly, when coupled with stronger encryption, 3G can promise high speed security. Most people who need an internet connection for business purposes will likely pay a premium for always-available, secure data services.
For the casual user, I do see 802.11b as being "just fine." So what if someone is packet-sniffing my Yahoo.com mail account? I'm really not doing anything important. However, when data services become both ubiquitous and inexpensive, we may find users who cut the line on their cable modems and DSL connections and go wireless. (Kind of like we are seeing a transition from land-line phones to cellular.)
Of course, there are also issues such as network saturation, which I feel are being grossly overlooked. I mean, I regularly can't complete calls during the evening hours (when the other 26,000 people at my University are also using their free night and weekend minutes.) I can't imagine what it would be like with data services on top of that!
In short, I see the cellular phone as an application of a broader wireless platform. The platform is now beginning to be used to transmit data, which is a perfectly appropriate use of the technology. Over the next few years as 3G becomes more wire-spread, we'll see how things shape up. It will be interesting to watch.
i dont think that wifi can replace this technology. 3g has better range then wifi does and it does roaming between towers, whereas wifi is not capable of this yet. So if you are stationary, wifi might be the way to go, otherwise 3g will be the solution for people on the go. Somebody needs to come out with a killer app in order to get people to swtich to 3g, such as unmetered connections for reasonable flat rate fee, then it will be more likely to catch on.
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.
Granted, the Cowboy's aren't the Packers
They are however, a bunch of packers.
With initial packet data speeds up to 384 kbps a wideband radio technology that provides mobile users with data rates up to 2 Mbps
More interesting would be a test of this under high saturation. Current systems are already getting bogged down, reception is getting craps, calls lost, etc. Once the user-base for the service gets high, I would predict a decrease in speed (at least for a time).
Never trust the "up to." My internet is supposed to get "up to " > 2.5Mbps transfer rate down. Average or mean would be a better indicator.
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.
I have a friend in Japan who was telling me about this product. Land line quality phones and a data connection over the same wireless connection!!
7 megs/second!!!
http://www.somanetworks.com, I've heard they are trialing a few places in the US and maybe Canada. IIt would be pretty nice to get away from Bell.
Well not a huge history, but just some interesting trivia..
Ricochet's wireless modems were not run out of the Bay area office as some like to think. Bay area was mainly a "peoples interface"
The real behind the curtain work occured down in texas. The NOC in texas was responisible for authenticating the modems and ultimately had complete control over the system.
[training speil]
When the ricochet is turned on, it's unique number goes over the poletops until it hits a WAP, then down to texas where the number is checked against the customer database. If it checks out an authorization command is sent back to the modem allowing it to connect to the ricochet network.
[end training speil]
Texas is a huge flat land mass located in the southern portion of the united states. It borders the carribean and has fairly nice weather (except for the occasional tornado) These geographical features are what makes it so appealing to wireless development.
Also to note are the remote oil fields that depend on pump yeild data that is usually sent wirelessly because it's cheaper in terms of right of way. So basically there's a demand in texas for anything new in wireless data transfer.
Texas is cool place to watch on "King of the Hill", but I wouldn't want to live there just because I love where I live (Friends, family, ect) I'm surprised slashdot editors would allow such a seething comment to make it through. Just because you love where you live is no reason to clown on someplace else.
And where his other hand was.
This is not yet a strong enough reason to move to Dallas, though.
Yeah, they're gonna have to throw in something *important* like downloadable ring tones or a Hello Kitty screensaver.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Just curious if 3G will jumpstart a faster Bluetooth spec. To the best of my knowledge, Bluetooth isn't capable of reaching 2 megabits.
Right now I have a BT enabled cell phone. I use it as an organizer that syncs up with Outlook on my laptop. I've heard that you can use BT to get an internet connection to the laptop, but I haven't personally verified that. If I could, though, it'd mean that my laptop would be able to get on the net without needing to remove my cell phone from my pocket. One less thing sitting 3 inches from my laptop with a 6' cable attached.
you really should get out more!
Its probably more accurate to say this is the first WCDMA/UMTS call on a commercial network, as Motorola and probably others have been doing this on their private networks for some time now.
Karma: Not Particularly Funny.
OK, can someone explain to me the difference between all of the 3g CDMA standards? Like CDMA 2000 vs. WCDMA? Is it a just a difference in how much data a second can be transferred, or is there something else to it. I know 1xRTT fits in there somewhere as well, but I think its just for voice.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
Interestingly FOMA is a 3G network. More specifically it is also a WCDMA network (NTT just had to do their own derivate), which
someone claimed to be inpracictable or expensive at best.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
Actually, alot of the 3G phone handset designs have AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning Satellite) receivers built in, so they don't need triangulation to spot ya any more. Part of the requirement that E911 systems have imposed on cell phones being able to identify their own location so they can send help out as needed.
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!
...When Connectivity Providers fought tooth and nail for cities. Recently it has been regions. Now it looks like they are banding together and drawing the lines at nations. I mean, it seems that ubiquitious networks would be wonderful, but I worry when one becomes the national monopoly. Will technology like this allow competition with other protocols? Or do we get one protocol and a bunch of implementations from different companies?
Zech Harvey, MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA