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Mobile Broadband to Hit 42Mb/sec In 2009

Posted by timothy on from the we'll-see-about-that dept.

Barence writes "Mobile broadband speeds could hit a blistering 42Mb/sec as early as next year, according to Ericsson's chief technology officer. The idea seems far-fetched given that even the fastest dongles currently hover at around 7.2Mb/sec, but the technology to smash that barrier is thought to be just around the corner. One of the methods is very similar to the MIMO technology already used in draft-N wireless routers, but Ericsson believes a combination of factors may even squeeze that figure to 80Mb/sec in the longer term."

8 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. To soon.... by slakdrgn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ....to guesstimate early next year. Aside from FCC approval do you really think most mobile broadband companies (well, AT&T and such) will hurry to implement this while citing issues with bandwidth and creating caps. Add that to RIAA influence and technology upgrades for carriers, it'll probably be at least 5-6 years before we see any consumer use of this technology.

    1. Re:To soon.... by aliquis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Though, Ericsson is swedish (and current services offer 7.2 mbps here in Sweden to, but it will only be that in very selected areas in big cities, which Sweden has few of :D. For most people it will be slow as shit, as always with crap like this* and DSL.)

      Build fiber networks ffs.

      * Oh well, some day I assume wireless technology will be decent, but until then. And wireless access points connected to households fiber connections would work just fine for most uses.

    2. Re:To soon.... by lysergic.acid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Build fiber networks ffs.

      that's what i'm saying. most people here in the U.S. are still stuck with 1~8 Mbps asymmetric residential connections, meanwhile people in Japan and South Korea are upgrading from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps symmetric bandwidth FttH for about $56 USD. meanwhile, what Comcast arrogantly refers to as their "wideband" service offers only 50 Mbps and costs $150/month.

      i think the first thing we need to do is catch up on wired broadband infrastructure. internet usage is only going to increase, and bandwidth demand will continue to skyrocket as more and more bandwidth-intensive applications come into popular usage. the disparity in per-Mbps cost of internet bandwidth between countries, not to mention the lack of FttH/symmetric service availability is quickly creating a gap between the nations with the most advanced communications infrastructure and the nations being reamed by incompetent/corrupt Telecoms & ISPs.

      after the dearth in bandwidth is addressed via wired infrastructure, the next step would be to roll out municipal WiFi/WiMax as last-mile solutions to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access. right now mobile broadband services offered by telecoms are way too unreasonably priced to be accessible/practical for general use. this is in stark contrast with public wireless networks, which are of great benefit to everyone.

  2. Re:Latency by tomz16 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Latency on 3G mobile broadband networks isn't bad. I usually see 100-500msec, with the average hovering somewhere around 200-300. Far from optimal for gaming, but enough to make the web feel snappy.

  3. Re:Wallets: Go run and hide... by aliquis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Over here "up to 7.2" mbps cost 199 SEK, 99 when introduced. So 24.3 $ / month.

    I don't understand why price would scale linear with bandwidth, for consumers it will probably raise much slower in price since most people won't use all the bandwidth anyway, even less all the time.

  4. Here in Australia by speeDDemon+(nw) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wireless is really the only hope we have for getting high speed broadband to all our country (7,686,850 sq km), and begrudgingly I must admit that our main carrier (Telstra) is actually doing a very good job.

    7.2Mb is available EVERYWHERE, not just next to the tower, not near a big city. Sure, for some people in distant locations they may need a roof mount antennae, but its everywhere.

    And they have on their roadmap 14Mb slated for next year, and 28mb for 2010. Now its just a roadmap, but so far they have met their promises with wireless, so I wont disregard them just yet.

    --
    DSLIP Web Design and Content Management Australia.
  5. Multicarrier HSPA+ by Erich · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Telstra is rolling out HSPA+ Jan 2009 @ 21Mbps. That's 21Mbps in a single 5Mhz band of spectrum, without MIMO.

    If you use two bands (10Mhz) you get Multicarrier HSPA+, which peaks at 42Mbps. I'm sure you could stick more bands together and get even higher rates.

    With HSPA+ getting 21+ Mbps in a single 5Mhz carrier, are folks really going to get that much improvement in areas with lots of users with WiMAX at 100Mbps in a 20Mhz carrier? There's only so much spectrum...

    --

    -- Erich

    Slashdot reader since 1997

  6. Re:Latency by brucmack · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've been using a 7.2 Mbit HSDPA 3G dongle for about half a year, and I hate the latency. Even for web browsing.

    If all of the data was transferred in one go, sure, it'd be fine. But when a typical web page results in tens of requests (for images, AJAX requests, etc.) you can really feel the latency. And it is noticable that there's an extra pause between clicking a link and having the page start to load.

    This is why it annoys me that the mobile broadband providers here (Denmark) are arguing against the ongoing fibre roll-out, since their technology will be "just as good" in a couple of years... Sure, you might in theory get to 100 Mbit, but if everyone is trying to use it, it's not going to work. It'd require massive infrastructure investments to upgrade the capacity of the masts, and I don't even know if the technology can work if there's too much activity on the spectrum.