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Just In Case 3G Isn't Speedy Enough
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."
"All European operators are eventually expected to move to 3G networks to ensure that there is enough capacity to handle voice and increased data traffic."
I don't think it will be introduced in Europe in the near future. Even WAP is a total disaster here. When will these people learn that we don't need 14.4 Mbits on our cellphone? We just want to make a call and send SMS. Japanese people may like the newest gadgets but in Europe, people do not get excited by this technology..
History matters..
It would be nice to have an mp3 player that you could travel with and continuosly download music to without having to dock it to a stationary PC.
other than that and multiplayer gaming, what cell phone applications possibly need this bandwidth?
They are having a hard time coming up with useful applications for current cell phones with gprs as it is.
Will code a sig generator for food
but we'd prefer broadband in our home for less than a kidney/month and have it *now* instead of 14Mb in our cellphones in 3 years.
How come greece sucks so much that we're the only goddamn country in europe that still hasn't got dialup.
i pay fucking E100/month for sucky dialup.
you really think this 3g shit is going to make us happy?
get lost.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
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.
And nobody is buying them. The salespeople standing outside the Three shops in London look more desperate everytime I walk past. The introductory special offers have been extended in an attempt to boost flagging sales.
Mobile phones and SMS meet a basic need for communication, 3G and video phones don't really add anything to this. Look at the desperate advertising campaigns from Three etc trying to convince us that it's cool to be able to see someone while talking. Nobody is advertising 3G as 'useful' or talking about features - it's all image.
I disagree with you. I think the technology is poorly conceived. Don't get me wrong, it is brilliantly done and very, very clever but it still does not "work". There is no way that I would make a call to my missus in a public place, shouting at a handset held two feet from my face. There is no way I would take out my expensive phone and make a video call in the pouring rain. There is no way I would make a video call whilst walking because I would end up bumping into people, standing on dog turds or falling down stairs. I cannot use the phone in bright light because of the ill-conceived TFT screen.
Basically I can only fully use the phone inside, in privacy. I'm sorry, I have a life.
Ok, when is this going to be introduced in Europe? Let's make it a bet. I bet 100 slashdollars (the virtual currency used here at slashdot) that it will not be introduced before 2015.
The reason I'm saying this is that most introduction dates for new communication technologies are far too optimistic.
For instance, UMTS was supposed to be introduced by now. Haven't seen it yet. That miscalculation nearly bankrupted KPN Telecom (the Dutch telephone co.). Every home a (A)DSL connection? It's coming but not quite. Every youth an i-Mode? Nope.
Problem is: introducing a new communication protocol usually requires a new infrastructure and that requires a lot of money. And when it is all about investing people (and especially europeans) like too wait for the competitor to make that investment.
Hence my skeptisism.
When we can get less dropped calls and actually get decent cell phone coverage away from the interstates. Check out the cell maps of the major carriers, they all hug the lines created by interstates. You go to a rural area like I'm from and the coverage is crap. IMHO the feature set of cell phones is starting to creep into the "that's cool, but I don't think I'll ever need it" category. The camera phones have got to the be worst.
This space for rent.
Note this bloke is from france which is in europe, but a backwater in most things! ;)
That's right! We in the UK have an increadible insight into France and the rest of Europe, due to the unbiased, honest reporting of our wonderful press. Those Europeans are trying to take away 1,000 years of British sovereignty, because, erm, they're jealous of us. Or something. No, I've got it! They're backwards and so need to reign the UK in with silly straight banana rules to be able to compete with us. After all, the UK has the largest economy in Europe, because we don't have silly European laws. Probably.
God bless the Queen. And Bush.
I can only talk from my point of view, but enough all ready with
-You can play your MP3s on it
-You can watch video on it
-You can teach it to knit
It's supposed to be a phone....
The only free time i have is when I cycle to work on a bicycle in the rain I don't even listen to that much music in the first place.
I'll put my hand in my pocket and buy a phone when it stops me getting wet when i cycle to work or when it makes my work easier.
I was blown away when in early 1996 i saw a hand held, web enabled, colour touch screen, digital camera Sharp Zauras in Japan for 40,000 JPY (400 USD/Euro), actually i think the black and white one was that much, but it blew me away at the time and everything else since has been a bit dull.
--My sig is bigger than your sig--
You get this. Companies advancing technology to offer better services to stay ahaead of their competition.
:-(
It's a damn shame not a lot of this happens in the U.S. anymore.
Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
"all you 'rich' assholes want Internet. You are LUCKY to have a phone! Now get out!"
Nice? And then the chief technician (of a 200.000 people area in Athens) comes and tries to be a 'techie' , only to make you understand that his knowledge of modems is stuck to the ones seen in 'Wargames' (seriously).
But we have ISDN you might say... well.. when the 2 technicians came to my house to do the installation, i was told that the 'idiot' electrical engineer had made it impossible for the line to work. I told them to leave the Network Terminal device and get out, then i installed it myself. (And i am not a techie).
But they are not just ignorant idiots, they are also cheating bastards. When the phone company (OTE) started selling special low rate numbers for Internet connectivity (EPAK) they only sold to their subsidiary (OTENET) and not to other ISPs. All they paid was a 150000 Euro's fine (small money to what they gained. Customers of OTENET paid less money on they phone accounts than other ISP's).
The stories i can tell you about the phone company in Greece would make most slashdoters cry in agony with the prospect of ever coming to the banana country.. err.. Greece.
But! to be fair, the Mobile phone infrastructure is actually quite good!. 3G is coming, and GPRS (2,5G) has been here for years.
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The word from the Big V is they are also testing in the Baltimore area. Since Big V is in the process of getting a migration from CDPD to Rx1TT going, i dont see EVDO become wide spread untill 2008 or so.
Japan might have a market for it, but I have difficulty believing anywhere else does.
Simple question:
If I can't use my cell phone in the basement, on the elevator, wherever... how can I continue to put more and more important data on its network?
The phone companies will never have an incentive to serve my basement (at work)... so what I really need is some kind of inexpensive repeater... 802.11x or whatever.
Since the idea of active repeaters (as opposed to remote antennas in a high-rise to improve reception) is so contrary to the way the telephone industry works, how are we ever going to get "cooperating networks," where the data flows on the best possible path?