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Life on the Road with 3G

Posted by michael on from the slightly-ahead-of-his-time dept.

david_adams writes "Since I first evaluated Sprint's new Vision "3G" high speed wireless data service in September of last year, I've had the opportunity to travel around the country, using the service to keep in touch with the world, receive all my spam, er, email, and do my work. I've used the service in hotels, restaurants, parked cars, moving cars, picnic tables, and airports, in huge cities, and in desolate stretches of interstate highway. Here are my impressions after this long term test."

4 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. SMS by onthefenceman · · Score: 5, Informative

    The author seems puzzled by the popularity of SMS in Europe, but it's just simple economics. With most plans I've come across in England in France, it's cheaper to send an SMS than to make a 1-minute call. Rates overall are also more expensive, so getting in the habit of sending an SMS rather than making a call lowers your bills.

    The other advantage is that in noisy environments like buses, subways, crowded hallways, etc. you don't have to shout over the crowd to get the message across. This keeps your neighbors from strangling you and lets you say your message once rather than repeating it 3 times.

    --
    Have you seen my stapler?
  2. Speed by rf0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well he says that he can get 12-18Kb/s per second on GPRS. Well thats not bad but here in the UK its just not worth doing. We are billed on a per Kb cost. To download a 1MB can pay upto US$8. Also the latency sucks so SSH over GPRS isn't the most friendly expierence in the world.

    However we have just had Three lauch which should provide real 3G services. Now that should be cool. I can't wait to have to make sure my hair is neat when I answer a video call

    Rus

    --
    Cheap UK and US VPS
  3. Why do I read the articles first? by jonbrewer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First off, he's not talking about 3G. Not even close. If the Slashdot posting had said 2.5G, I'd have ignored it. I mean, I've been using GPRS in Boston on T-Mobile's network for over two years, and it's nothing to write about. He can't even read his email on his phone! Bah. I was using Outlook on my iPaq using a bluetooth connection to my GPRS enabled Nokia 6330i almost a year ago.

  4. Re:SMS by ojQj · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I have to say, I personally hate SMS's, and they aren't cheap, but I can see why some people do like them:
    1. You can communicate from a loud disco
    2. You can communicate without interrupting someone in case they are doing something important (similar to e-mail)
    3. You can communicate with someone in a language they don't feel terribly comfortable in since they don't have to respond in real time

    This is all aside from the wierd fashion it has become among some teens here in Germany.


    That said, I don't think SMS will be terribly popular once real e-mail is more mobily accessible.