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Mobile Operator Grabs 4G Lead In UK — But Will Anything Work On It?
pbahra writes "Finally, the U.K. is going to get a 4G mobile-Internet service. For a country that was once at the cutting edge of mobile telephony, its lack of high-speed mobile broadband was becoming a severe embarrassment. Everything Everywhere, Britain's largest mobile network operator, has been granted permission by U.K. regulator Ofcom to provide next-generation LTE services as early as Sept. 11. Although Ofcom's ruling is a significant step for the U.K.'s telecoms future, the choice of frequency — 1,800 MHz — means that devices that can take advantage of the much faster data speeds that LTE offers — theoretically up to 100 megabits a second — are limited. Currently the only significant market using the frequency is South Korea. While 1,800 MHz is in use in a small number of European countries, and in Australia, numbers of users are small in comparison to the U.S. This means devices may be harder to get and cost more. So, anyone who thinks their new iPad is going to zip along at 4G speeds is going to be disappointed; the new iPad only supports U.S. LTE frequencies. For the same reason, those hanging on for the new iPhone, expected to be announced on Sept. 12, in the hope that it will be LTE-compliant are unlikely to have good news. Even if there is a new iPhone, and even if it is LTE-enabled, will it operate on Everything Everywhere's frequency?"
The folks from RIM are currently touring the world trying to convince carriers to support their upcoming device.
Japanese and Korean cell phones are way more advanced than in the US. You can watch watch OTA television programming on them!
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
The UK adopting 1800 MHz LTE is awesome news for Australians, since it means we're more likely to see compatible devices coming out earlier rather than later.
iPad 3, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S III... these are all LTE devices, but not in Australia. It'll be nice when the manufacturers are now much more likely to deliver 1800 MHz versions much earlier in the product cycle.
to Everything Elsewhere
I'm currently working on Smart Energy products for consumers homes (ZigBee). We have devices working and interoperating in the US and else where at 2.4 GHz. The UK wants to use 900MHz because at the physical layer it has better range. I was kind of hoping the UK would give up on doing things their own way. This doesn't give me much faith.
If the iPad/iPhone won't work on Everything Everywhere's frequency, it would probably offer a small, pocket-sized mifi device.
That way a user's mifi device would make the 4G connection and his/her iPhone/Ipad would make a wi-fi connection to the mi-fi device.
most of Asia (not all) is scheduled to operate on 1800MHz
Apple got fined for not working on this frequency and claiming 4G in australia so they are more than aware !
1800 is great for Everything Everywhere as they get first mover advantage and use the same as other countries
regards
John Jones
The article seems to imply that the carrier should have adopted US LTE frequencies.
The problem is, the North American LTE frequencies are quite different from the rest of the world. You have to expect that any NA-bound LTE devices wouldn't work on Europe or any other place.
Here's a basic rundown of the major frequencies in use:
North America: band 2 (1900MHz), band 4 (1700/2100MHz), bands 12/13/17 (700MHz)
Europe/Asia/etc.: band 3 (1800MHz), bands 5/20 (800MHz), band 7 (2.6GHz)
Because of this, even the current LTE chips with multiple frequency support has to choose between North American and European baseband firmware, necessitating separate models for NA and Europe release.
In terms of number of carriers behind each frequencies, 1.8GHz is the second most preferred after 2.6GHz. So I think it was sensible for the UK carrier to get behind it.
Personally, I'm waiting to see if there will be an LTE iPhone with non-US LTE frequency support. If this happens, device provision issue should lessen, as it is a popular phone - there will be a lot of demand and the competitors will release models with similar frequency support to prevent losing market share.
Serving time in Aristotelean prison for violating laws of physics
Certainly the device is capable of speeds less than "4G", is it not? If it is, than surely something will work on it. If it is not then it destined to the dustbin of history. Seriously though, what manufacturer would market a device that is completely incompatible with every other existing technololgy?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I'm headed to England soon for vacation and need some advice on prepaid SIMs. I'm going to be mostly in the Blackpool/Preston/Manchester area... I'm going to have my first gen iPad with me which I successfully ran on a 3G prepaid SIM in Australia last year and I'd like to do that again.
Anyone have some advice on what service to go with in that area of England? I don't need anything crazy... just a couple of gigabytes total will work.
Thanks!
Why are the transceivers hardwired for one band? Is it really that hard to make one that's switchable between bands? Or is it the antennas? :)
Sorry, dumb CSer with only basic EE here
thegodmovie.com - watch it
All of Apple's products support the old 3G frequencies. 1.8GHz is not in that range.
That's why they traditionally have slower network access than any other devices
(Android, etc.).
The devices are "capable of 4G" but since they aren't designed to DO 4G they
DON'T DO 4G.
Typical apple.
E
TFA says something like "but will anything work?!" and then it gives one (1) example of something that doesn't, the iPad.
I mean whoop-di-doo. The iPad doesn't work on 4G here in Japan either, last I checked. And there would be more people here who care than in the US. (There are less people overall, but I can promise more LTE demanding consumers).
Companies who want to sell their warez will make it work with the required frequencies. That's been the case with 3G, and I doubt you should expect it to change with the advent of LTE.
Rather than trying to get a phone that works with LTE, or an iPad or whatever. Get a portable ROUTER that works with it. The main thing you will want it for is when you are using your laptop anyway. You can share the connection with your phone, etc. no problem. you can share to multiple devices while paying only one data plan, you can pick whatever devices you want, so long as they have WiFi, and you can upgrade the router as possible without worrying about compatibility.
Thanks Labour. Because they managed to auction the 3G network off for such a huge, huge price, I suspect most mobile operators in the UK held off, wanting to get their moneys worth from the deal. Because it was such a huge sum, I can only assume they've dragged their feet, as our mobile networks join our broadband network in slipping way behind.
I love standards! ...there's so many of them to choose from!!
The good thing about it is that in the trains, buses, and restaurants, the other people are not bothering me with their phone conversations. :-)
There's a website that collects coverage data through an Android app and publishes them online: Sensorly, which confirms that it's mostly 2G in Scotland. Regarding spatial coverage, it suffers a bit from undersampling, though.
Note: my experience is from an HTC Desire S phone in a silicone rubber casing; I noticed in the past that the silicon reduces the GPS sensitivity, but I never noticed a difference for 2G/3G signals.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
At least wireless companies in Britain haven't started soldering embedded SIM cards to the circuit board to force users to pay criminally overpriced international roaming charges from (*cough*) "strategic global roaming partners" when their customers travel overseas, instead of buying a prepaid SIM from a local network.
Sadly, this isn't an artificial, contrived example. Sprint did it to their new "world" phone, the Motorola Photon Q. Apparently, Verizon is chomping at the bit to start doing the same. When I first read about it, all I could think of was the quote from 1984 about the boot stepping on a face.
Never heard of them.
I had to google to find out that it was the new bastard name that the merged Orange/T-Mobile were calling themselves. I also see that they're sub-letting part of their allocation to 3 Mobile, another lacklustre UK provider, to offset some of the insane price they paid to OFCOM for the licence.
Won't be affecting me, I don't plan on getting a "4G" phone anytime soon; as noted elsewhere, even 2G coverage is still patchy and 3G even worse!
There are other countries in the world, who collectively have more population than you do.
Signed,
Everyone Everywhere Else.
Hah, hah, what? I'm still getting less than 1Mb/s on my ADSL. Mobile "broadband" has been slower than dialup whenever I've used it.
By following the rest of the entire fucking planet?
Life is like to buy a packaging, buy a good packaging like to find a good object, we mutually consistent. Buy a bad package, simply do not fit your product, but not worth the candle, if forced to use an incompatibility with their own objects, even if married, it will not last long. Cherish life, to find a good object, buy a good packages.
Website: http://www.zetarpackaging.com
Email: info@zetarpackaging.com
If phone operators really want people to adopt 4G they'd better ensure that the broadband limits are high enough that they allow for reasonable usage and the price is low enough to be attractive. By reasonable I mean within the context of a device equipped with high speed internet and capable of delivering HD streaming video. That means at least 50GB a month and preferably more if they expect to steal business from landline / fibre providers.