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T-Mobile's First HSPA+ Modem Goes On Sale Sunday
adeelarshad82 writes "T-Mobile announced that the webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick, the first HSPA+ device for the US, will be available beginning on Sunday, March 14. The device was originally announced at MWC in February. HSPA+ is interesting because it could enable 4G LTE-like speeds using existing 3G infrastructure and according to a hands-on, it smokes Wi-Max. Right now, it's still just for Philadelphia, although we should see several major cities light up with HSPA+ on both coasts well before the end of 2010."
Up here in Canada, we already have HSPA+ in urban areas... strange that we are so much in advance, we are known to usually adopt technologies well after the US...
The problem with the US market when it comes to broadband, wireless tech, etc vs. Europe or Japan is population density. US cities (It's an American mentality, I suppose) tend to sprawl out, and most of the country is rural, but still fairly populated. Most countries have a higher density (the US is 178th), and most of the non-3rd-world ones that are lower (Canada, Russia, Brazil, etc) have large areas that are entirely unpopulated (and thus don't need to be taken into account for density when it comes to rolling out tech). Not to mention the US is freakin' huge to begin with -- Portugal is a little smaller than Maine, our 38th biggest state. But with a population of 10 million, that's more than Michigan, our 8th most populous state. Rolling out a technology here in the US requires an _enormous_ outlay of cash because of the area that needs to be covered in order to cover enough people to make it worthwhile.
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow...
Well, the HSPA+ modem is only a potential. HSPA+ is also supported on many smart phones, and even on the download side by the iPhone 3GS (upload is still the basic 384kb/s, not even HSPA-regular speeds). And yeah, ideal HSPA+ download rates hit 7.2Mb/s. Sprint is claiming 6Mb/s for their WiMax "4G" link, while Comcast and Clear claim 8Mb/s and 10Mb/s or more.. funny thing, though.. it's exactly the same WiMax network. As for HSPA+, AT&T claims they'll have rolled it out in 30-40 cities, as of this summer. If you're not in-town, or not in the right town, don't expect to get faster connections. But much of this is marketing hype anyway. If you listen to Sprint ads, you'll expect to find 4G is a real thing. And it is... for computer connections. But they have yet to ship a WiMax phone. And I can sympathize about that "incredible thing" 1000 miles away. Or 3 miles away. Where I live, there's no wired broadband offered. So I'm paying $120 a month for satellite at 1.5Mb/s down, with heinous download limits per day. Three miles away, there's 12+Mb/s cable with no announced per-day limits. This summer, Verizon 4G comes online, too. They're using LTE, the global standard, not WiMax, and on 700MHz (versus 2500MHz for WiMax), so they have a big advantage. They're going hot in 30-40 cities all at once. LTE trials have demonstrated 50Mb/s links, but once it gets real, there are per-client maximums imposed, regardless of the actual cell traffic. I'm in a local totally ready for this as a home connection, there's "Stimulus" money to hit up us rural folks, and yet, I still imagine Verizon hooking this up in places that already get Cable, FiOS, and HPSA+ just dandy.
-Dave Haynie
The problem with the US market when it comes to broadband, wireless tech, etc vs. Europe or Japan is population density. US cities (It's an American mentality, I suppose) tend to sprawl out, and most of the country is rural, but still fairly populated.
I can buy that argument for the rural areas of the US, but when you areas such as NYC I can't fathom as to why they don't apparently have the population density and size to support all the fancy technologies that seem to spring up elsewhere in the world. If anything NYC should be showcasing to the rest of the world as to what high population densities and capitalism can do for technology. But then again, I suppose the technology they have actually *does* showcase the tech that the companies want to install, and that basically the companies couldn't give a flying fuck about providing the best shiny and newest technology.
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...non-3rd-world ones that are lower (Canada, Russia, Brazil, etc)...
Don't mean to nitpik, but Brazil is a third world nation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World
That really depends on what you are doing now doesn't it? If you are streaming an HD video then the greater speed matters, if you are trying to load the 1,000 elements in a complex webpage or doing XMLHTTP requests then the 1Mbps connection with the lower latency may be preferred.
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The most interesting thing is that HSPA+ is getting close to the same efficiency (bits/Hz) as LTE; 21MBit/sec in a 5MHz channel vs. 100MBit/sec in a 20MHz channel.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
really? this is the next big wireless thing to come? it doesn't sound too impressive, especially with the caps. this is not what consumers want. they want ONE connection that can go anywhere with similar speeds wherever they go. can we get rid of home/mobile barrier once and for all? maybe get that network working and leave the other stuff alone until it gets made? it's the same bullshit that doesn't allow for a simple $30/month unlimited voice/text/data(which should just be sold as one fucking thing, as its all 1s and 0s anyways) plan.
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