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Experimental 4G Phone Service Faster Than Cable

JymBrittain writes "NewScientist reports that Japanese researchers have achieved blistering rates of transmission for cell phones that allowed for viewing of 32 high definition video streams, while traveling in an automobile at 20 kilometers per hour. From the article: "Officials from NTT DoCoMo say the phones could receive data at 100 megabits per second on the move and at up to a gigabit per second while static. At this rate, an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute." These transmission rates were achieved using new experimental methods of multiplexing."

49 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Yay! by Daxster · · Score: 5, Funny

    32 simultaneous porn streams?! Oh my! I don't need to be going at 20mph for that..

    --
    Death by snoo-snoo!
    1. Re:Yay! by KillShill · · Score: 5, Funny

      not ALL of you anyway.

      --
      Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
    2. Re:Yay! by Doctor+Memory · · Score: 2, Funny

      Heh, too bad they're all displayed on a 3" screen...

      "Whoa, those babies are huge -- I think..."

      --
      Just junk food for thought...
  2. Wow by Tidal+Flame · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wow. But if you think the data rates are amazing, imagine what the cost is going to be!

    1. Re:Wow by Zorilla · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Where in Japan are you? For $40 per month, I can only get 8Mbit ADSL with real world speeds that don't even exceed 512kbit/second.

      --

      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
    2. Re:Wow by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Given that you could get a 50mbps DSL connection for less than $40/month in Japan, I would assume not much.

      Hey now. Some parts of the US aren't quite as far behind as others :)

      For example, in my city they are just finishing installation of a citywide fiber network. Very freaking awesome, but what's better is that I can get (and am going to) an amazing Internet connection. For $40/mo I get 20Mbps download and upload with a public IP. That's right, $40/mo, and when I asked about running my own server they said, "That's fine, just don't host anything illegal." Double that and you get unlimited local and long distance VoIP and local cable in addition to 20Mbps Internet.

      See? Fiber really is good for you! :)

      --
      "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
      /)
    3. Re:Wow by ceejayoz · · Score: 5, Funny

      On behalf of much of Slashdot, let me say this:

      You bastard.

      Can I come live with you?

    4. Re:Wow by delirium_9 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I was in Kyoto on 47Mbit ADSL, and I could download at about 16Mbit/s (2 megabytes/sec). Which I only ever got if I was downloading a lot of torrents or a linux ISO from a good Japanese mirror.

      A friend of mine (also in Kyoto) is on 100Mbit fiber, and I think for her the bottleneck is finding places which actually provide content at that speed.

      I'd figure it was the same for any of the larger cities, so the better question is where in Japan are you?

      --
      Since your UID is smaller than mine, I can only conclude that you're trolling. -s20451 (410424)
  3. Unfortunately... by FlyByPC · · Score: 2, Funny

    This won't help out when surfing Slashdotted sites...

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  4. 20 kilometers per hour! by Beatlebum · · Score: 5, Funny

    20 kilometers per hour!

    OMG, that's incredible.

    1. Re:20 kilometers per hour! by Traa · · Score: 2, Funny

      20 kilometers per hour!

      Hmmm, thats suspiciously close to the maximum speed one can unroll a fiber cable ;-)

  5. Home Usage? by weilawei · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One wonders if it's even feasable to take this sort of technology at some point and use it within the home or for local ISPs. I'd certainly pay extra per month for gigabit wireless.

  6. 20 kmph? by FeriteCore · · Score: 3, Informative

    What happens when you leave the parking lot?

    For the metric challenged 20 kmph is about 12 mph.

    Somebody else can supply the furlongs per fortnight.

    1. Re:20 kmph? by Daxster · · Score: 5, Funny

      Everyone's favourite unit..
      http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=20+kilometers+ per+hour+in+furlongs+per+fortnight&meta=

      20 kilometers per hour = 33 404.9153 furlongs per fortnight

      --
      Death by snoo-snoo!
    2. Re:20 kmph? by Saiyine · · Score: 3, Funny


      the furlongs per fortnight

      Here you are: 12 mph equals to 32 256 furlongs per fortnight.


      --
      Superb hosting 4800MB Storage, 120GB bandwidth, $7,95.
      Kunowalls!!! Random sexy wallpapers (NSFW!).

      --
      Hosting 20G hd, 1Tb bw! ssh $7.95
    3. Re:20 kmph? by Zorilla · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My compact car sputters in first gear at 10 kph. 40-60 kph sounds more logical for city traffic.

      --

      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
  7. A minute? Sure... by dasOp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    if your device has enough memory to hold it and is fast enough cpu-wise to sustain a decent gbit pipe.

    Regular consumer pc having drives fast enough to get a dvd in a minute? Good thing we nerds get to the good stuff before anyone else. :)

    1. Re:A minute? Sure... by djupedal · · Score: 5, Informative

      if your device has enough memory to hold it and is fast enough cpu-wise to sustain a decent gbit pipe. Regular consumer pc having drives fast enough to get a dvd in a minute?

      It's not about a device having enough memory to hold the download - it is about having a pipe that can push large amounts of data. Streaming video/audio, which will come to a handset or other mobile device thru the air.

      I think the DVD comparison is more about size than content.

      There is no need for movies to be gb's when viewed on a handset - As an example, my phone (Motorola E680i) plays .3gp video and the file size for an entire DVD is less than 50mb. I converted the Terminator DVD for use on my PSP (MP4) and it comes down to 287 mb, with stereo and wonderful clarity. No need to download 5+gb's just to watch a movie.

      If you talk about a 7" widescreen LCD for use in a car, then you would see files larger, but again, nothing along the lines of 5+gb.

      The content won't be targeted for download and storage, just streaming. Of course, some of us will find an excuse to archive it, but that's another story...

  8. Thanks, NTT DoCoMo Officials, for the perspective by Fhqwhgadss · · Score: 5, Funny
    At this rate, an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute.

    At this rate the technology will never reach the USA. Thanks for pointing that out right away jerks.

    --
    How does a 7-person democracy cut a pie? Into 4 pieces.
  9. What about my nads? by sockonafish · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I left the phone in my pocket while torrenting an ISO to my Powerbook with an 802.11g link, would I be rendered sterile?

    1. Re:What about my nads? by TylerL82 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sterile?
      You post on Slashdot.
      You won't ever be close enough to a girl to even find out.

    2. Re:What about my nads? by Lehk228 · · Score: 2, Funny

      you won't be worried about sterility because your testicles would ignite

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  10. In other news... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hollywood surrenders. Film at 11.

  11. Just what I always wanted... by dal20402 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...a render farm made up of cellphones.

  12. This remids me.... by LothDaddy · · Score: 5, Funny
    A man with a 4G cell phone receiving data at 100mbs leaves Dallas on a train traveling to Amarilo at 20kps. A second man leaves Amarillo riding on a train headed to Dallas at 10kph. His 3G cell phone is receiving data at 500kbs. Which one will download more porn first?

    Neither, there's no f'ing cell receiption between Amarillo and Dallas. Thought that was a math problem huh?!

    1. Re:This remids me.... by mikefe · · Score: 2, Funny

      20 kps!!! Holy crap, that's almost 45,000 mph!!!

      Yeah, and our trains are still late...

      --
      There: Something at a specific location.
      Their: Owned by someone.
      Please make sure your english compiles.
  13. FAQ by vidnet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. Why do they keep adding all these new features? I just want a plain phone.

    Get a Vodafone Simply and go read People magazine instead of slashdot.

    2. Yeah, that's great and all, but when do we get this for our laptops?

    The same time we get it for our phones. While irda and bluetooth can't handle these kinds of rates, usb, wireless usb or the next generation connection interface will. (4G is still years and years away)

  14. But what if there was 1 million of them by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Somehow, I don't think the phones could acheive the same bandwidth if there was 1 million of them withing an area the size of a normal city. There's limited bandwidth on the airwaves. Might be good for broadcasting video streams, but if everyone wants different data, it won't work. Besides, we already had technology to transmit 30 channels of video to handheld viewers 20 years ago.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    1. Re:But what if there was 1 million of them by cnettel · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I can promise you that the analog receivers of 1985 didn't reconstruct a signal that was on par with normal definition of today and far below a HD stream.

      Also, I seem to remember that one part of the multiplexing ideas for 4G was too use differently oriented antennas, dynamically adapting a signal mixing scheme to filter out the signal minus most interferences and echos, as those shouldn't be uniform for different polarizations. Therefore, saying that there simply can't be enough available bandwidth in the air isn't that relevant. We are still far from the theoretical maximums, and this kind of approach also opens the possibility of nearby transmitters sharing the same frequency with less jamming. Sure, these numbers might be optimistic, but if proper multiplexing gets into the standard, 4G will be far more interesting from a technological standpoint than 3G. Did I mention lower transmission power? (at least when not maxing the connection)

  15. Welcome to the world's most powerful technological by plasmacutter · · Score: 5, Funny

    backwater.. the USA. where you too can get a mere 3 mbit/s monodirectional while people in scandanavia and japan get 20 megabits minimum, and will soon have gigabit service to their phones. I would like to personally thank the FCC for fostering the competition necessary to get us here.

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  16. But the cost... by guard952 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, with telcos providing data at 2c per kB, downloading that DVD in less than a minute will cost you $98,000.

    Surely it's gotta be cheaper to just buy a helicopter and fly to the video store.

  17. Sigh.... by Quixote · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am sick of these optimistic figures (to put it mildly).
    It is fine for 1 cellphone to receive 100Mbps.
    But how does it scale? Remember, there will be about 10000 users within range of a base. Can the base pump out 1Tbps of data? (Remember, the users could be watching live HD video at the same time).

    1. Re:Sigh.... by Decker-Mage · · Score: 2, Interesting
      It's quite obvious you have no idea of what is possible in the fields of electrical and electronic engineering. Why do you ass-u-me that one antenna is pumping out the signal to 10,000 users. Why do you ass-u-me that there are not overlapping delivery systems. Why do you ass-u-me that multiple users seeing the same feed can't be service by the same signal? What do you know about how MIMO actually works?

      Now true, I have no assumptions about how it is going to work in the field when there are multiple users on the same antenna with different feeds, but I wait for the actual data from the field tests before I start to whine.

      I'm an engineer. Test it, abuse it, verify it, then publish the data. This article is about possibilities, not actual field test data.

      --
      "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
  18. Gentlemen start your servers by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I would imagine that this could make raiding a warez operation even harder.

    High speed connectivity on the go would be a dream come true for big time movie, music and software pirates.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  19. 4G 4HowMany? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Informative

    The problem with lots of digital radio nets is sharing the bandwidth. WiMAX, for example, promises 155Mbps over several kilometers footprint. But in Manhattan, a 2Km radius includes maybe 1M people most afternoons. That's 155bps, 20 bytes per second, per person. <n>G tech usually has fairly widely spaced towers. Even at 100Mbps, they're going to have to put towers only a few meters apart to blanket public spaces with any traffic at all.

    Real mobile broadband isn't going to be addressed until perhaps phased array antennas let us share the same frequency with many physically separated transponders. Then we'll be multiply info capacity in the same radiation bandwidth. There might be some interim solutions with bittorrent-style swarms, which increase available network capacity directly proportionally to the number of nodes crowded into a space. But latency and the possiblity of high simultaneous demand for nonredundant objects make that protocol unsuitable for people's personal phones. 4G research will have juicy fruits. But these research results aren't bringing mobile wrist-TV phones to the masses anytime soon.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  20. Hmm, I'll believe that bandwidth when I see it... by DamonHD · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Hi,

    As a 3G user that rarely achieves 200kbps out of the originally-hyped 2Mbps, even in the the best-served parts of London, I think at least a 10-fold scaling of expectation-to-promise is in order here.

    As pointed out, data prices will have to scale too!

    Rgds

    Damon

    --
    http://m.earth.org.uk/
  21. /. reported 3 times the speed over a year ago by sidney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    NTT DoCoMo's 4G Tests Hit 300Mbps

    Posted by CmdrTaco on 06:55 AM June 2nd, 2004
    from the and-i-still-can't-get-cable dept.

    haunebu writes "'Your brand-spankin'-new 3G phone is nearing obsolesence: NTT DoCoMo reveals the results from a new 4G test system.' says TheFeature. While in a car moving at 30kph, DoCoMo engineers managed a peak throughput of 300Mbps and a sustained transfer rate of 135Mbps with their new variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing (WSF-OFCDM) downstream technology. Who comes up with these names, and how does Japan manage to stay lightyears ahead of everyone else in wireless?"

  22. 4g phone? by drsquare · · Score: 3, Funny

    How on earth would you pick it up?

  23. Re:Thanks, NTT DoCoMo Officials, for the perspecti by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't worry, it'll never reach North America, regardless of what it's being used for.

    It would break the cardinal rule of mobile technology over here, mainly "give them the least service for the most money to maximize profits".

    N.

    --
    "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  24. some corrections and comments by knopf · · Score: 2, Interesting
    1) 4G is far far away (especially from the US, also from Europe, which still struggles to implement 3G)

    2) It heavily depends on the protocol on top of the multiplexing: 3G allows high bandwidth, because a single phone can be served by multiple base stations (=masts). However, as we already saw with GPRS and WAP, if the protocol is bad (voice had more priority than data packets; hand overs between base stations could not treat data connections very well too), the whole service will die (=no more WAP).

    3) It heavily depends of the number of cell phones per cell. All these test drives show the optimal case (just remember that 3G promised 384 kBit/s, but if you are in a car, you have only less than 100 kb/s left). Data has (an probabily will still have) less priority than voice calls. So your porn download will be stalling, because your neighbour has phone sex ;-)

    4) Who really needs that stuff? My country is one of the no 1 test markets in the world (a target market of 6 Mio people and 5 mobile telephony providers!!), we have a lot of different services, phoning is almost free of charge. Virtually nobody uses 3G now, everybody uses the phone for voice connections and short messages. Only a very small number uses the phone for data connections (btw. also multi-media short messages did not catch on yet).

    However

    Japan is different. When NTT Docomo get in the market, land line internet access was very expensive. Many people used the phone as primary private internet access. That's one reason for the huge success. (Though I, and also the available surveys about that topic, don't understand, why people in Japan pay that much money for phone screen savers ;-)

  25. Cable will use a similiar tech in the near future by papasui · · Score: 5, Interesting

    DOCSIS 3 will use a channel bonding technique to achieve similiar speeds through coaxial. Essentially by reclaiming analog channel space by converting to all digital systems (I'm beta testing this right now) in the next 3 years that same analog space can be phased out giving back all the waste channel space without needing upgrade the cable system itself to support higher frequencies. What this basically does in layman terms is instead of sending all the data across the same frequency it breaks the data up across multiple frequencies in parallel.

    Something to the effect of:

    Old
    699Mhz 11111111
    New
    699Mhz 1
    689Mhz 1
    679Mhz 1
    669Mhz 1
    659Mhz 1
    649Mhz 1
    639Mhz 1
    629Mhz 1

    It probably will take 6mhz, not 10mhz but by allowing some space between the carriers it avoids some noise between them.

  26. Re:Imagine the fee ! by sigloiv · · Score: 2, Informative

    Uh, I think you're forgettin T-Mobile's deal for thier Sidekicks and Blackberrys (my dad has had one of each). Basically, you get unlimited data at dial-up speeds for $20 a month. Pretty good deal (and occasionally speeds reach up to 300 Kb/s).

    --
    Software is like sex. It's better when it's free. -Linus Torvalds
  27. Re:FAQ -people magazine by dindi · · Score: 3, Informative

    hey i consider my wife a geek/nerd as she is a conservation/sustainable whatever biologist ... and she would buy peopl emagazin and she is wathcing channel E .......

    my God .... I am embarassed when she buys people magazine in the supermarket ..... it is just soooooo not geeky .... and she does not read slashdot or willing to watch anime with me ...... nor play wideo games .... and i was happy that i married someone with a super geeky carrier ........

    nah i go back to watching whatever boring movie she just rented ...... isn't there a way to geekify your wife ?

    hmm returning to phones .... here in Costa Rica GPRS is experimental for te last 2 years so it is cheap ... but being experimental it is sometimes down or unacceptable slooooooooow ...... and no MMS ......
    well i just look at my all-featured EDGE/GPRS/whatever cameraphone and wonder if it is fun to send pictures each other and stuff ... her maybe in 2099 you will be able to watch wideo streams on a phone .. evenmy cable si too slow for streams .... well at least i have good weather unless it is the rainy season ...

  28. Re:Thanks, NTT DoCoMo Officials, for the perspecti by MegaFur · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe it's because some of the companies started to roll out new tech, or more often the hot air promise of new tech, too soon during the .com bubble. Now, after it's exploded, the companies that remain are too scared to stick their neck out by putting forth novel technology. Or maybe not. *shrug*

    --
    Furry cows moo and decompress.
  29. Re:Thanks, NTT DoCoMo Officials, for the perspecti by Decker-Mage · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You are probably on the mark here. What most people don't realize is that business is fundamentally risk adverse except in a bubble where the bandwagon effect seems to overcome that risk adversion. Or at least that is what I've observed over a rather lengthy lifetime. In some ways this resembles the prisoners dilemma in games theory, a fundamental part of current microeconomics.

    --
    "[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
  30. Scientific Proof:- Size, Weight and Cost of a bit by glowworm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Too easy. There are 99.4 Furlongs in a kilometer and 336 hours in a fortnight. So 20KM/h is equal to 667,968 Furlongs a fortnight

    Because there are 40 rods in a furlong you could also say this is equal to 53,437,440 rods per month.

    More relevent for the /. crowd is that the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second so we could express 20KM/h as 0.000000000000085313386 C. If we take 100 megabits per second over this distance we can finally, empirically, and for the very first time, get the width of a bit.

    1.85 Zeptometers.

    Because we know the constant rods to the hogshead is 40 (thanks Abe) we can work out that it would take 4.93 Litres of petrol to carry 100mbits of data. Based on the current price of petrol in Australia this would cost exactly AUD$6.00

    Now if we use Einstein as a basis we get the weight of a bit as being

    1.81 Nanograms!

    So there we have it, this valuable Japanese research has proven the mass, speed, size and cost of a bit.

    --
    Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
  31. What significance does the 20kph have? by GingerDog · · Score: 2, Interesting


    Was the transmission aerial/basestation moving to follow the car? Why is it relevant?

    (I know a few years ago I had a lecture from a telecoms guy who mentioned moving aerials for 3G etc, but I didn't realise they were ready to be used)

    DG

    --
    The Ginger Dog
  32. Re:Mormon Culture would damper that idea by nmb3000 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some how i don't think you would like it, despite the fast Internet connection (Utah was that state that decided to pass a law that mandated all ISP's filter their connections if asked by the customer, threating jail time to those who didn't)

    Oh, cry me a river. So what if ISPs are required of offer the customer the optional filtering of content? What's wrong with a government responding to the wishes of the people? Different areas have different laws, and Utah parents decided they wanted to be able to control what content comes into their homes. When they ask me if I want it I will say no. And no, not because I can't live without pr0n, but because I don't want to deal with a filter that blocks websites I might want to read for whatever reason. The same reason I turned Google's SafeSearch off.

    Further more, Provo is the town that is home to BYU the LDS Church run school (i don't think you could really call it a 'school' it really should have it's accreditation revoked for, among other things, it's depressing lack of academic freedom).

    Give me a break. I've attended BYU and it very much is a school, just as much a school as any other private school is. The keyword is private, meaning that whatever limitations or expectations the governing body wishes to enact is completely up the them. Nobody is forced to attend the school and it receives no money from the government. As far as it's "lack of academic freedom", I'm not sure what you mean. The only thing that comes to mind is the religion credits required for graduation, but that's what you'd expect from a school funded and owned by a church. Other than that there is a dress and honor code that students are expected to follow, but there's nothing very shocking in there, just your basic "be good a good boy" type stuff.

    Which brings up another point, Provo is ~90% Mormon, I, who am Mormon couldn't stand to live in Orem (just a stones throw from Provo, in the same county) for 6 months (how i survived there i will never know)

    Yeah, it's hard. Real tough. Watch out, they throw Books of Mormon at you.

    --
    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  33. Ouch... by pjcreath · · Score: 2, Funny
    NewScientist reports that Japanese researchers have achieved blistering rates of transmission for cell phones
    "Blistering"? A rather poor choice of words given how anxious many people are about getting cancer from their cell phones...