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Cingular To Offer Mobile High-Speed Internet
ArbiterOne writes "ZDNet has the story: Cingular is moving ahead with its plans to offer wireless high-speed Internet access to consumers. Lucent Technologies has agreed to provide the technology, and Cingular has agreed to buy out AT&T Wireless, and become the number-one cell carrier in the US."
...as much as I love the internet, and new technologies...interent on cell phones is too small to do anything with!
I mean..it's great if you wanna...uhm...uhh...
oh wait! it's not great, it sucks!
But people, seriously...if you want to get on the internet so badly...don't leave your house
There is no need to sqiont at a little tiny screen that wont even display anything right.
The choice of UMTS sets Cingular apart from Verizon, which is further along in using a system known as EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized). UMTS is based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology that supports data rates of up to 384 kilobits per second, Cingular said. An enhanced version called High Speed Downlink Packet Access would offer peak data rates of 14.4mbps. GSM is well-established in Europe but less widely used in the United States.
Hopefully this will mean that it will be easier to travel from a cell phone usability point of view... on the other hand, CDMA is superior to GSM, so is this a case of comprising technical superiority for the sake of compatibility?
Brandon Glass's personal site.
1. When we say "high speed", what bandwidth are we talking about?
2. How accessible is this high speed for today devices like say, mobile phones? Can I use my cell phone to browse at high speed?
http://efil.blogspot.com/
There is no mention of what the cost is or indeed what the price model is. Do you pay for time, bandwidth, QoS?
Having a high bandwidth connection is all very well but if it costs $10/Mb then ill just wait until I'm at the office to connect.
Technologies like this are only useful to the vast majority of people once a certain price point is met. I imagine there is a large cost to recoup be the OpCos so it will be sometime before we can all sling a 3G modem in our laptops and forget about it.
----
I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't mind if cell-phones had built-in wifi support. With wifi hotspots becoming more prevalent these days, they would seem a good alternative to lugging around a laptop, and (somewhat) cheaper than buying a PDA.
Any thoughts?
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
Cingular is my cell phone company (at least until my contract expires) but their customer service reps are completely clueless about most of those little technical details such as how to get voice mail to work (they only know how to reset it). Forget it when it comes to "data" services. I have been told that I had to take my phone to an authorized service center (not my local phone store) to enter the IP address for data services. They would not give me the address to enter myself. Cluetrain doesn't stop here!
Many cellular phones feature browsers that were created on a whim, as a way of beefing up the features list prior to going on sale. Most Ericsson phones for instance have very poor browser functionality. A lot of the new phones coming from Nokia and Sony are light-years ahead of the first primitive attempts. A word of advice though - stay away from imported asian phones, they may look flashy and high-tech, but any are designed to be used for as little as a month before needing replacement.
Of course, this being slashdot, home of the technically adept, I feel obliged to mention the ultimate way to experience the internet on a cellular phone - via linux. Of course, this way is not for the faint hearted, but those steadfast in their dedication to that plucky Swede's OS will find that the Kyocera 1080 is admirably suited for an ultra-light linux distro, with built in internet functionality. If only I still had mine, I could truthfully claim to be making this post by cellphone!
Making the moon less necessary since 1998.
I know this is an unfarmiliar concept tosome of you, but hear me out.
One GSM Modem + One Laptop + One provider offering High Speed wireless internet over its network = a Laptop on the internet.
We've got such setups going in New Zealand, and it's slowly becoming mainstream.
1. When we say "high speed", what bandwidth are we talking about?
The article says: It has already signed up Lucent Technologies to provide equipment that currently supports data speeds of up to 2 megabits per second (mbps). The gear ultimately could support speeds of up to 14.4mbps.
2. How accessible is this high speed for today devices like say, mobile phones? Can I use my cell phone to browse at high speed?
No, it will be available for the yet to come 3G mobiles that have been promised for many years already. I have a feeling that we will need to wait more for them and when they become available they will be called 4G, skipping 3G. We have seen such thing a couple of times already.
Now we're getting mobile wireless (which of course means we can do mobile VOIP) can we please get rid of telephone numbers? They feel increasingly primitive to me. It's much easier to remember name.surname@company.com than 023633463453.
Of course the problem is with personal numbers, rather than office-based ones. Of course your work is one thing that defines you (bob.thompson@company.com), as does your physical location bob.thompson@london.uk. But not everyone has a job, and location based identifiers don't make much sense for mobile numbers. Any solutions?
Cingular, in a statement announcing the 3G testing, described general aspects of some services it might offer consumers with the new network. The offerings could include downloading film trailers and sports highlights, access to e-mails with large attachments, and locating automated bank machines, movie theaters or restaurants.
If this is what they're thinking of, they don't get it, and if that's what they offer, I certainly won't.
I realize not everone wants/needs SSH. But the thing with this kind of offering is to offer a *platform* open enough that all kinds of folks can develop interesting services. Do this, and you don't have to do focus groups to discover what people will like -- a market will do it for you.
Tweet, tweet.
Because if it's anywhere near as bad as their normal phone service, you'll never be able to connect.
I just moved into a new apartment (about a week and a half ago), and my phone, with Cingular service, isn't much more functional than a paperweight now.
There are about three spots in my apartment I get any signal at all, and I have to be standing up to do so (one spot is right at my couch, so I can test this).
I thought it was because GSM sucks, but that was dispelled after I talked to two of my neighbours, both on the same floor as me--one has AT&T (now owned by Cingular, but they still probably use their old equipment), and the other has T-Mobile. Both are getting great signals, and both providers use GSM--it looks like the problem is entirely Cingular's fault.
Ach--why the hell did I have to get a new phone in December, thus renewing my two-year contract? I'm this close to hiring a lawyer to bully/harrass Cingular into releasing me from my contract...
By any chance, does anyone know anything about how to boost power to the internal antenna of a Sony Ericsson T226, or if doing so will matter signal-wise?
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Which Mobile Internet technology is the best ?
May be you can find it, by playing this simulation game here at Lucent.com. The simulator here shows the differences in bandwidth and roundtrip delays for various mobile technologies. The simulator compares CDMA2000 EV-DO, CDMA2000 1X, GPRS and EDGE. A UMTS, GPRS, GSM-Data and Modem version. There are two version of the simulator one with EV-DO & one with UMTS.
It still does not take away from the fact that AT&T Wireless has, by far the worst customer service I have the displeasure to experience. I hope cingular can fix that...
It's all fun and games until someone takes an eye out!
OMG, that's so novel, so un-thought of ever before.
That's so outside the box! And just think what if we put wifi cards in laptops! Then you could surf the web, without paying outrageous telco charges!
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I would settle for reliable coverage when making normal phone calls. Frequently the network is spotty in my area, and has been "scheduled for expansion" according to customer service. How about you get that right and then try something new? Since I'm using my phone primarily as a um... phone.
For T-Mobile customers: all T-Mobile accounts -- including prepaid EasySpeak customers -- have free WAP access available. T-Mobile doesn't charge minutes usage or bandwidth used for GPRS internet access. If your cell phone can connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, IR or with a cable, this means free internet access via GPRS from your laptop. The speeds aren't great, about that of a 56K modem, but definitely useable for the convenience it offers. Check out T-Mobile.HowardForums.com for more details and discussion. If you're interested, more information on my experience with T-Mobile GPRS internet access and a Nokia 6610 here and here.
1) Verizon already offers high-speed mobile data access to customers in San Diego and Washington.
This is based on CDMA EV-DO. This technology gets 2.4Mbps peak (500Kbps average) on the downlink, and 153Kbps peak (80Kbps average) on the uplink. A nationwide rollout is expected later this year.
2) Sprint announced that they are going to do the same thing yesterday. They expect to have service later this year/early next year.
3) CDMA EVDO has been successfully deployed for the last 2 years in Korea (6 million subs) and for about 9 months in Japan (subs not known). Dozens of devices/phones are available.
4) Cingular's service is NOT based on GSM. This is the next generation of GSM (3G) which is based on CDMA technology. The complexities of this upgrade are much more than that of going from CDMA to EV-DO. W-CDMA will give you about 2Mbps peak (500 Kbps average) on the downlink, and far less on the uplink. This is over 3 times the bandwidth used by CDMA EV-DO.
Magnus.
Everyone is buying each other, getting newer and fancier phones, getting fancy high speed internet, but still no one can match Verizon in terms of actually being able to get a signal and make a call... how come they are not focusing on that before all the extra fluff?
Fido, a Canadian GSM cellular service provider is beginning to roll out a service called iFido... wireless 2.2Mbps internet access. Currently it's only available in certain areas of BC, but myself and a few others here in Winnipeg are (im)patiently waiting for it to come to the rest of Canada.
I'll be glad when I can finally move 100% away from the phone and cable companies here. Right now, I'm 100% off the phone company (MTS), using Fido for my phone service, but still stuck with Shaw (cable) for high speed internet access while using satellite for TV.
~jaraxle
I already use my Sprint Phone along with the data cable from Future Dial to get my Internet access. I get speeds about 3 times as fast as dial-up, included with my Vision package. So basically $15 a month and I'm getting 150K. It's not blazing fast, but it works for me.
Since FCC regulations of public spectrum use was something of a hot topic on /., thought I might bring this up...
Cingular is now planning to simultaneously run four different cell network, Analog (AMPS), IS-136 ("TDMA"), GSM and now UMTS/WCDMA. This is going to take a whole crapload of spectrum space, considerably more than any other carrier. Since spectrum limited, doesn't this concern anyone? How is planning to get away with this?