Slashdot Mirror
Roaming WLAN / GPRS
Obnoxio The Clown writes "The Register has an article on breaking technology which will (theoretically) allow roaming between WLAN and GPRS (and presumably 3G when it gets here)." At long last, I'll be able to delete my spam from everywhere!
It's funny you should mention this, because I just got my 3G phone working yesterday. It sucks.
(For the record I am using Hutchinson's three service in the UK with the NEC e606 phone.)
Compared to WLAN access (even at its slowest), 3G crawls. And - frankly - you've got a better chance of finding a WLAN access point than consistent 3G coverage.
WLAN does, however, have to jump through a few hurdles before it can approach what the cell phone networks do. Firstly, it needs some kind of rationing. At CeBIT my laptop could always see about 20 WLAN networks at any time. Surprise, surprise: none of them worked as they all interfered. At least with cell-phones, one person has a working service.
Secondly, there is no support for "handing-off" between base stations. Given the limited range of an AP, this is a must. (It's also not simple: you need to maintain your IP address as you jumo between APs, which requires a unified backbone network - which 3G has, but WLAN does not.)
Thirdly, it needs various WLAN access point owners and cell-phone operators to communicate. And this is where I break down laughing.
I wish, I wish WLAN could come and allow me to throw away my terrible NEC e606. But I just don't see it.
--- My dad's political betting
This capability is already available in CDMA... oh well.