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Just In Case 3G Isn't Speedy Enough

Posted by Hemos on from the faster-and-faster-it-goes dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Will we soon be able to download music or videos on our cell phones? Yes, with the arrival of the next 3.5G technology, as reports Jennifer L. Schenker in this International Herald Tribune article. "NTT DoCoMo Inc., the Japanese company that introduced the first third-generation digital mobile phone service in the world, is preparing to pioneer wireless services that are at least 40 times as fast." DoCoMo will use "a technology called HSDPA, for high-speed downlink packet access, also known as 3.5G, [which] is expected to deliver data at as much as 14.4 megabits a second." This new technology will not arrive in Europe before 2006 at least. Check this column for a summary."

10 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. 14.4 by FrostedWheat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yea, so my 14.4 modem isn't useless after all! What's that you say .. megabits? What's that?

  2. 14.4? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Aaaahhhh!!!11 Horrid flashbacks from a decade ago!

  3. All this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    And I still can't make a cell call from home....

    1. Re:All this... by geggibus · · Score: 2, Funny

      Home sweet home.. i don't need a cell phone... i never leave this room.. 12 fans for all the fresh air i need.. Enough keyboards to make a comfortable bed and some old pizza boxes for growing "vegetables" in .. the healthy slashdot lifestyle...

  4. eh? by RobertTaylor · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Will we soon be able to download music or videos on our cell phones?"

    Us Brits (ok I am welsh really!) have been able to do this already. Three a mobile company here in the UK has been selling handsets and access for a while that provides music/maps/video downloads and calls.

    "In Europe, we are now using GPRS, or general packet radio service, also known as 2.5G. And we are limited to 30 kilobits a second."

    Note this bloke is from france which is in europe, but a backwater in most things! ;)

    Note that the testbed for the DoComo handsets is in Cambridge...UK.

    All together now... God save our gracious queen....

  5. 2006 eh? by RajivSLK · · Score: 5, Funny

    This new technology will not arrive in Europe before 2006 at least.

    Japan now and in europe in 2006 -- early extrapolations of this trend indicate that this technology will splash into the north american market as early as 2032.

    Lets keep our fingers crossed.

    1. Re:2006 eh? by pe1rxq · · Score: 4, Funny

      And a few years later (around 2040 when the rest of the world long forgot this whole thingy) an American company will start the PR machine for something called SUPER-DUPER-CDMA-MADE-IN-USA which will give comparable results (slightly better than a defacto standard from years ago), is incompatible with anything ever made.....
      Then ten years after that George Bush the third will invade some third world countries because they still don't use SUPER-DUPER-CDMA-MADE-IN-USA... eh... no,no make that making weapons of mass destruction and being a saveheaven for some 12-year old cyber-TERORIST who defaced the whitehouse website.

      Jeroen

      --
      Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
    2. Re:2006 eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      2032? Well, I hope they are using more than 16-bit to calculate their dates, 'cause that's way past the 2028 crash!

  6. Bulletproof argumentation there by corgi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nicely argumented view. I especially like your references to numerous studies on the subject. And thanks for making it clear to me that I don't want mobile wideband-applications.
    Phew, I think I'd better go crawling back to the local landline monopoly and beg them to re-install a landline connection.

  7. At 14.4 Mb/s... by Markus+Registrada · · Score: 5, Funny
    The battery life for these things will be about three minutes.

    Assuming that by the time the networks get built we can use fuel-cell batteries, then the problem will be heat build-up. Can you imagine a phone with a fan? Heat pumps are little help, because they can only move heat from inside to the case, and you can't have the phone getting too hot to hold. "Are you happy to see me, or is that a 4G phone in your pocket?" I suppose ice fisherman could use them to keep their hands warm.

    Before these things could become practical we would need asynchronous-logic chips or spin-coupled logic, both over a decade off.

    The days of defrauding investors are far from over.