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A Detailed Review Of A 3G Phone And Network
An anonymous reader writes "The NEC e606 and 3's recently launched 3G network has been reviewed at Mobileburn. They seem to be happy with the network, but the phone is buggy and unfinished. One cool thing is that you can download sample videos to see what 3G is really like."
A pilot friend of mine recently looked into getting a 3G phone, it'd be nice to be ableto see his wife and kids when doing long haul etc, but the major flaw that he could see wasn't the phone, but the covereage.. the 3G coverage is not global, in fact it's limited to a handful of countries apparently..
Never have I seen a new technology that was more hyped up but less uselss than 3G.
The marketing people behind these products seem to have forgotten that the whole point of having a mobile phone is so that you can talk to people.
Why do I need video calling when audio calling works just as well at a fraction of the cost?
Why do I need picture messaging when text messaging (SMS) works just as well at a fraction of the cost?
Why do I need to be able to slowly download movie trailers, news and sports clips to watch on a tiny screen when I can watch those things on my TV or PC at a fraction of the cost?
Right now, with no decent applications, 3G is a joke. The only thing I've seen that even demonstrates a good use of this technology is doctors sending each other picture messages of patients' X-rays when looking for a second opinion. I guess it could be useful to other professionals too, such as estate agents, but for the price you pay to send a picture message right now you'd have to be mad to use it constantly like it was a digital camera.
If you've got money to burn then go ahead and buy one of these phones. But if you've got that much money to waste then you can send me some too at the same time.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
From the article:
> Weighing in at 150g, the e606 is no lightweight,
> but it certainly didn't feel as heavy as other phones
> that weigh this much
Huh?
Well there are two major reasons why 3G hasn't taken off (atleast in the US):
* The spectrum sales were done in years when money was no issue - unfortunately the dot com bust hit and suddenly the operators who had spent all their dough getting the spectrum had none left to actually build the infrastructure. (that's not to belittle the whole other issue of a seriously fragmented spectrum range here in the US where getting enough band to support 3G is pretty difficult for large operators - and almost impossible for new entrants)
* 3G is a major step ahead as far as the wired backhaul of the cellular infrastructure is concerned. With major companies (e.g. Lucent, Motorola) still cringing from the shock of vendor financing it's upto the operators (Sprint, Verizon et al) to buy the (expensive) upgrades themselves. In this climate today that's increasingly difficult - though there is some hope with people adopting intermediatry technologies. (I believe Verizon is moving ahead steadily on that one too).
But the fundamental questions remain: Do we really need 3G? What is the compelling reason? And will it be cost effective for end users or so overpriced that no one will be able to get it?