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Is 3G Irrelevant?
An anonymous reader writes "Network Magazine asks 'Are We Better Off Without 3G?' in which the author notes that many networkers are giving up on 3G as a data services alternative due to high deployment costs and slower speeds vs. Wi-Fi. Given these issues, are we likely to see carriers like Nextel bypassing 3G for 4G technologies such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) by Flarion Technologies?"
I'd like to see mobile providers concentrate more on getting their 2G (voice) networks rolled out and matured across America and Canada. You in Europe are lucky -- you have almost 100% coverage. Here in America that is patently not the case - even in large cities such as San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
Have you SEEN the GSM map of the US? Looks like a road atlas with smudges.
That's because GSM sucks. CDMA/FDMA coverage in the US is better then GSM coverage in europe.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
America , Land of the free to lag behind the rest of the world in mobile technology. Man youre networks suck, and Motorola's suck even more. Go back to youre pagers you 3rd world country.
Typical that an Alabama halamtandra is complaining about the Blackberries. I bet if they were Whiteberries it would be a whole different story
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
The problem with 3G, as far as I'm concerned, is that there's very little use for it. I've used some GPRS/UMTS containers, and they've certainly got some purpose, but the average user couldn't give half a hairy shit about that.
/., fuck a goat....
The biggest industry in the wireless data market, that I've noticed, is porn (not surprisingly). Especially in Germany, less so in Italy, and it's non-existent here (America) and in Canada. I don't know what services are popular in other countries. The thing is, I doubt porn will really take off on cell phones. People are used to seeing their gaping holes on 17"+ monitors, not 3.5" screens with poor contrast.
The only good use I've made of 2.5G/3G technology involved linking computers into corporate networks from rather remote locations. Once I used a chain of connections that involved a laptop, some Ericsson T68s, a Nokia GPRS node, and a corporate VPN via IR/Bluetooth/GPRS. Other than the associated geekfactor, that's not much fun to use.
I've done plenty of multimedia stuff on cell phones. I could see teenagers and kids having some fun with it, but it's not really worthwhile. Then again, SMS isn't that useful either, when voice calls could do the same in most (not necessarily all) situations.
Nobody needs 3G, nobody needs 4G. The only way either will take off, over 802.11 variants, will be if laptops (put a cellphone card into a laptop) and pdas come with built in access to those networks. People just want their shit to work, and 802.11 has been doing that pretty well so far.
Voice works, and that's what people want phones for. I think most people see voice and data as being completely separate, and they don't care if their cell phone provider can give them data access (outside of the geek community).
Anyway, I'm fucking rambling... fuck 3G, fuck 4G, fuck niggers, fuck
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
Oooooh, you're to good to wallow down here at -1 with the trolls and common gutter filth. You're better than that! You're just here for the cogent technical discussion! PFAH! Why don't you come down to steerage once in a while your lordship, and come face to face with the ugly machinery that makes /. work!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff