DBC Network
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Azerfon unveils ‘3G+’ services
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Clearwire Rover: Pay As You Go WiMax By the Day, Week, or Month
Clearwire just launched Rover, a no-contract service that offers unlimited WiMax goodness for $5 a day, $20 a week, or $50 a month, along with two new WiMax modems. Yep, get ready to start topping up your 4G.
The service is launching in all of Clearwire's WiMax markets with two modems: a $99 USB stick called, um, the Rover Stick, and a $150 puck called, uh, the Rover Puck. The latter of the two can service as a WiMax hotspot for up to eight devices—it has Wi-Fi b/g/n and can simultaneously run 2 SSIDs—though neither have any 3G connectivity.
Here, for your reference, is a map of Clearwire's coverage.
Users will be able to buy new service in some retail stores, like Best Buy, or online, in $20 and $50 increments. Rover, they explain, is "designed for digitally addicted youth who refuse to settle for long-term contracts." Don't you call me an addict, Clearwire. [Rover via Slashgear]
Clearwire Introduces Rover: Instant Gratification to the Internet Addicted
Nation's First Pay-As-You-Go 4G Mobile Broadband Service
Unlimited Usage for Just $5/day, $20/week, $50/month
Redefines "Friends with Benefits" with Rover Puck(TM)
Rover Stick(TM) Available for Those With Commitment Issues
KIRKLAND, Wash., Aug 30, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR) today unveiled Rover(TM): the nation's first pay-as-you-go 4G mobile broadband service for tech-savvy Gen Y customers. The Rover brand is designed for digitally addicted youth who refuse to settle for long-term contracts, overpriced internet service, or speeds slower than what they've become accustomed to at home.
Rover is available in all of Clearwire's 49 4G markets across the U.S. at rover.com. Rover is also available at CLEAR stores, Best Buy stores and select independent wireless dealers in Houston and St. Louis.
"Simple, commitment-free wireless services are wildly popular with the Gen Y crowd, and Rover provides them with the first pay-as-you-go unlimited mobile internet offering at 4G speeds," said Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer for Clearwire. "We've built Rover from the ground up with products, pricing and features designed specifically to serve a younger market who knows how you get connected is just as important as where. Expanding our offers to meet this underserved segment is an important new business opportunity for Clearwire as we continue to extend our leadership in mobile broadband."
"The opportunity for pay-as-you-go mobile broadband should not be underestimated," said Carrie MacGillvray, program manager and wireless analyst at IDC. "Prepaid – or pay-as-you-go – data provides an option for consumers to experiment with the power of mobile broadband without being saddled with a two-year commitment. A prepaid mobile broadband service can offer consumers the ability to access and share Internet service, at home or on the go, in an affordable way."
PUCKS AND STICKS
Friends with Benefits
Rover's flagship device is the Rover Puck: an ergonomically designed portable Wi-Fi hotspot that lets you share broadband access, or "Puck", with up to eight devices at home, out on the town or nearly anywhere the feeling strikes you. The Rover Puck can easily slip into a purse or backpack and serve as an on-the-go broadband access point for devices such as laptops, netbooks, the iPad(TM), the iPod touch(R), smartphones, PSP(R) systems, game consoles, and Wi-Fi enabled digital cameras, among others. Users have the option to connect up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously.
The Rover Puck features mobile download speeds of three to six mbps, with bursts over 10 mbps (up to 4x faster than conventional 3G), using Clearwire's 4G network. The Rover Puck is available today for $149.99 (plus tax).
Going Solo
The Rover Stick(TM) is a personal 4G USB modem that connects any notebook, laptop or desktop to the Rover 4G Service. The Rover Stick is compatible with MacBook(R) and MacBook(R) Pro laptops using Mac OS X, as well as netbooks and notebooks running Windows(R) XP, Windows Vista(R) and Windows(R) 7. Offering the same super-fast internet speed as the Rover Puck, the Rover Stick is available today for $99.99 (plus tax).
No Commitment Issues
New users receive two free days of service to ensure Rover's metro-focused 4G coverage fits their mobile lifestyle. Rover has a 14-day no-hassle return policy for any device purchases made on rover.com or in CLEAR stores.
Rover is priced at $5/day, $20/week, or $50/month for unlimited 4G internet usage. Depending on the retail channel, customers will be able to purchase a Rover Re-Up PIN code or physical Rover Re-Up card in $20 or $50 denominations. Rover Re-Up is available online at rover.com, at all retail outlets carrying the Rover Puck or Rover Stick, as well as at Rover Re-Up specific retail locations. Rover does not require a credit card to activate service and is designed to bring broadband internet to a new audience.
GENERATION Y
The Rover brand is designed for a demographic that has grown up in a wireless world. They manage their life through the internet, and their devices signify status. Rover provides products and service to meet their need for all things internet.
"Rover's target audience has never known life without internet. They love their devices and they want as much speed and capacity as possible, without the limits and commitments of most mobile options," said Seth Cummings, GM, Rover. "Rover offers iconic devices along with straight-forward pricing, and plans where unlimited truly means unlimited. It is not in Rover's DNA to be constraining, confusing or complex."
MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Launch campaign
Rover's initial communications will showcase the dramatic ways in which 4G mobile broadband can change human behavior in previously unimagined ways. More information is available at www.evology.com.
Life @ 4G
Rover.com invites users to experience "Life @ 4G." Rover-sponsored athletes and music artists will be profiled, showing how Rover influences their careers and lives as they live Life @ 4G. Sporting a Rover wingsuit, base jumper JT Holmes, who travels up to 150 mph during freefall proximity flying, lives life with the Rover Puck and no strings attached.
Rover Activity Badges
Rover believes in loyalty, and will introduce a badging system that rewards users for participating in Rover activities. For example, the "Trendsetter" badge recognizes early adopters of Rover in each market, and the "Friends with Benefits" badge acknowledges users who refer friends to the Rover service. Badges have become wildly popular on location-based apps and are expected to resonate with the youth consumer and motivate usage.
THE BIG PICTURE
4G Network of Networks
Rover is the newest brand connected to the Clearwire 4G network, joining brands which include CLEAR(R), Sprint 4G, Comcast High-Speed 2Go, Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 4G, Best Buy Connect and Cbeyond. Today, the Clearwire 4G "network of networks" is available in select cities throughout the United States, where approximately 56 million people live.
Detailed coverage maps of service availability can be found at www.rover.com/coverage.
For press, broadcast and bloggers: Video footage can be linked from www.youtube.com/rover4g. Product and brand images and company logos can be downloaded from the Clearwire Newsroom at www.clearwire.com/newsroom. To subscribe to Rover RSS news feed, click here.
For more information about Rover, visit www.rover.com. Clearwire company information is available at http://www.clearwire.com.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
AXIMCom MR-102N mobile router
The AXIMCom MR-102N is very easy to set up. It has an Ethernet port, USB port, power switch and AC input. The Ethernet connection is used for the initial set-up so that you’re not creating an open wireless hotspot before you’ve done any configuration.Unlike many of the routers in this class, the MR-102N supports a variety of advanced network settings such as port forwarding and VPN.
We tested the AXIMCom MR-102N with a USB modem from Optus. We powered on the MR-102N, plugged in the modem and went into the browser-based configuration utility. This was both Windows and Mac friendly. Given that it worked with both Firefox and Chrome, we’d expect the same from Linux.
Setting up the modem required that we choose the brand from a drop down list and then enter the APN settings. Once that was in, we could choose whether to connect automatically or on command. One of the handy things about the MR-102N is that it’s not only able to use USB modems. If you’re an iPhone user and have tethering enabled, you can connect your iPhone and share its 3G connection. You can also use Windows Mobile and Android phones in the same way.
Perhaps the most important thing we can say about the MR-102N is that it just works. Once we’d gone through the initial set up, the MR-102N delivered a reliable Internet connection to an iPhone, iPad, netbook and notebook computer. Battery life was reasonable with several hours of use on a single charge.
Range over the 802.11n radio was solid with ping times only falling once we several several meters away. The signal didn't completely drop away until we were over 12 metres away and with a solid wall interfering with the line of sight.
For $199, the AXIMCom MR-102N delivers an easy way to use your existing 3G data service and share it with multiple devices. With support for all Australian carriers and a bunch from other countries as well, the MR-102N makes a worthy travel companion.
Friday, 2 July 2010
Intel buys cellular chip maker Comsys
The acquisition, said to have taken place in late May, has not been confirmed by Intel, but has been widely reported in the Israeli press, as well as by Forward Concepts analyst Will Strauss who claims his comsysmobile.com email addresses now work with intel.com.
Comsys started out as a modem making firm for PCs developed for Conexant Systems, but later developed IPR for 2G and 2.5G cellphone modems. Strauss notes that the firm’s biggest licensee was Texas Instruments, which later purchased the Comsys cellphone operation. Comsys, says Strauss, then changed direction and entered the WiMAX business, Intel’s playing field, with its combo WiMAX/GSM modem chip.
Strauss says Comsys’ 80 employees will now join Intel’s major wireless R&D centers in Haifa and Petah Tikva.
Another source close to both firms confirmed to RCR Unplugged, “Comsys did, or was about to, go out of business, so Intel just hired some of their employees.”
The source goes on to say he doesn’t think Intel acquired any Comsys products, but that it was normal and expected that Intel “continue to hire wireless expertise inside Intel…not just for Wifi or WiMax, but many areas.”
Meanwhile Strauss notes that “although 3G capability was mentioned in the Israeli news reports of the acquisition, we are unaware of such IPR by Comsys.”
He added, “Comsys has closed shop, and I suspect that Intel wanted their brains and IPR, not their chips.
“Any cellphone chips that Intel may make, whether 3G or 4G will have to also “down-clutch” to 2G and Comsys has that IP,” Strauss told RCR Unplugged.
Strauss posits that Intel is “anxious” to return to the cellular business, realizing it is the only segment that can rival the PC space. “Intel, now under different management, is searching for ways to get back into the cellphone chip market that it once abandoned,” he claims.
The firm, says Strauss, had reasonable success with its XScale-based application processors, but had a tough time merging its multi-level flash memory on the same die with its baseband “Frio” DSP core. Intel sold both properties to Marvell, which has since revitalized and expanded on them.
Intel has been making massive efforts to scale its Atom chips enough in terms of size and power usage to make them suitable for cell phones. Several months back the tech giant announced its latest iteration of Atom, the Atom Z6xx based on the latest “Moorestown” silicon had cut idle power to 1/50th of its predecessors and that power consumption for audio processing had reached 1/20th of the previous version. Not a bad start.
This achievement, admitted Intel, was largely thanks to the company’s use of Freescale’s power management IC (PMIC) and Strauss claims an audio DSP in Intel’s accompanying Platform Controller Hub MP20DSP also went a long way to slashing most of the audio processing.
Still, rumors abounded that Intel was on the prowl for a cellular chip company, with Infineon Technologies AG topping most speculators’ lists. Such an acquisition would, in Strauss’ opinion, have put Intel head-to-head with Qualcomm, the world’s largest fabless chip house and #1 cellular chip vendor.
Unfortunately for Intel, however, Infineon was not up for sale, so the chip giant went looking elsewhere, and appears to have found at least some of what it was looking for.
As to why Intel hasn’t formally announced this ‘acquisition,’ Strauss told RCR “Intel doesn’t have to inform the public unless there’s a ‘material effect’ on its revenues or profits.”
http://tiny.cc/d0rop
WLAN VoIP router offers 3G USB modem support
Running a VoIP stack on the wireless router enables consumers to make high quality phone calls over the Internet. VoIP routers bring cost benefits to consumers since calls are charged as part of the Internet service instead of a separate regular telephone charge. Added services like multiple lines, conference call and caller ID are also provided at no additional charge as part of typical VoIP offerings.
Broadcom's 802.11n design platform with external 3G support includes router options for low-end to high-end solutions as follows:
• BCM5356U—single-stream 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11n router SoC solution
• BCM5358U—dual-stream 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11n router SoC solution
• BCM5358—a dual-stream 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11n router SoC solution with VoIP support
• BCM47186—dual-stream 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11n high-performance Gigabit Ethernet router SoC solution with VoIP support
To provide a strong wireless backbone for the networked home, Broadcom optimized this new 802.11n router platform with Accelerange technology—a unique set of hardware and software enhancements that ensures more robust wireless coverage.
The powerful 533MHz MIPS32 74K core CPU memory subsystem architecture allows for consistently enhanced voice quality even under high Internet data traffic conditions.
Broadcom uses a 65nm CMOS design process and a high level of integration to reduce the number of system components on-chip, which in turn, lowers the rest-of-bill-of-materials cost by up to 35 percent. These new router SoC solutions further reduce cost by using two-layer PCBs, making high-end routers more affordable to consumers.
The new Intensi-fi XLR platform builds upon the architecture of Broadcom's current 802.11n platform, and maintains data rates of up to 300Mbit/s.
The new SoC solutions include interface to support 3G and 4G technologies including WiMAX and LTE (long term evolution) WAN connectivity. The router SoCs also pack integrated IEEE 802.11n CPU/MAC/BB/Radio, memory controller, five-port Fast Ethernet switch and 2.4GHz power amplification circuit. The solutions integrate USB 2.0 host port that can be used for storage and print server applications as well as Low-power modes for a green router footprint.
"By optimizing our wireless solutions for popular consumer use cases, Broadcom is able to address growing industry trends in wireless routers including support for external wide area wireless networking (3G, WiMAX and LTE) and the ability to run a high quality VoIP stack. This product family not only supports these two new features, but also provides best in class system integration and wireless performance," said Michael Hurlston, senior VP and general manager, Broadcom's WLAN line of business.
http://tiny.cc/gioya
Monday, 14 June 2010
Micromax 350G HSDPA High Speed 3G USB Modem With Plug n Play – Auto Install Software
Micromax has launched another fascinating high speed Modem to everyone’s delight. With innovative design and advanced technology implementations, Micromax 350G HSDPA USB Modem provides rapid access to Internet at affordable prices. Capable of working with any carrier, MMX 350G enables you easily to access Internet on notebook, laptop or desktop by simply plugging it in.
Weighing around 30 grams, Micromax 350G HSDPA USB Modem is a portable, light-weighted modem with dimensions 45.0(L)×45.0(W)×9(H). Supporting HSDPA (3GPP Release5, category 5/6, upto 3.6 Mbps DL and 384 Kbps UL), UMTS, EDGE (3GPP Release4, multi -slot class 12, up to 237 Kbps) and EDGE (3GPP Release4, multi-slot class 10, up to 85.6Kbps), this 3G USB modem also has sms capability along with Micro-SD card slot expandable up to 16GB. Micromax 350G also includes a T Flash memory reader with memory capability up to 8GB along with the Micro SC card slot. You are also provided with an internal Antenna in order to have a powerful signal reception.
Micromax 350G can be powered using an USB interface or through an external power supply source and this modem supports PC’s with Windows 2000 (SP 4), Windows XP (SP 2), Windows Vista (SP 1), Windows 7 and also Mac’s with Mac OS 10.4.9 or higher (on Intel platform).
Features of Micromax 350G HSDPA USB Modem
- Fish design with cable.
- Dimensions of 45.0(L) × 45.0(W) × 9(H)
- Weighs 30 grams
- Support for NDIS Driver and Zero-CD installation.
- Support for Windows2000 sp4/ XP sp2/ VISTA sp1/ 7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher (only support INTEL platform), upto 10.6.0
- Plug & Auto Installation
- Support for APN auto management
- Phone book – vCard version 3.0
- Support for frequencies GSM/GPRS/EDGE – 900/1800/1900 MHz and UMTS- 2100 MHz
Micromax 350G USB Modem is priced nearly Rs.3500 and is available for purchase from the retail outlets.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Improve 3G Modem Reception with a Kitchen Pot
It would only make sense, after seeing what a kitchen strainer and aluminum foil can do, that a metal kitchen pot would provide a significant signal boost for a mobile broadband modem, or "dongle." The homemade video evidence tells all.
The video is edited in a rather stuttered style for reasons unknown, but the segments where a USB broadband modem is placed into, and pulled out of, a large saucepan, with a signal strength meter running, seem to be fairly steady. A YouTube commenter suggests a more parabolic shape, like a wok, might do even better in capturing and honing the broadband signal.
If you're ever stuck at a friend's house with weak mobile broadband reception, it might pay off to dig into their cookware. At the least, it's an instant conversation starter.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
AT&T Just Killed Unlimited Wireless Data (and Screwed Everybody in the Process)
Unlimited, all-you-can-eat wireless data was a beautiful thing for Apple devices on AT&T, delivering streams of Pandora, YouTube videos, a million tweets, and hundreds of webpages without worry. And now it's dead.
AT&T's new, completely restructured mobile data plans for both iPhones and iPads have officially launched the era of pay-per-byte data, which we've known was coming. We just hoped it would take a little longer. It's the anti-Christmas.
AT&T is likely just the first, since carriers rarely do anything alone (like when everybody launched unlimited voice calling in lockstep), and Verizon's CTO has rumbled that plans with "as much data as you can consume is the big issue that has to change." And so it is.
If you look at the costs per megabyte, you can see how, despite the fact AT&T is pitching the availability of lower priced plans as a value move, you actually are paying more for less. (Update: Corrected chart, moved a decimal place.)
Under AT&T's old iPhone and smartphone plans, $30/month bought you truly unlimited data. With their new plans for smartphones, arriving June 7 (not coincidentally, the day of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote) the confusingly named DataPlus offers 200MB of data for $15 a month, while DataPro gives you 2GB for $25. With DataPlus, if you run over 200MB you get another 200MB for $15. But, AT&T tells us that if you're running over the 200MB limit, you can actually switch to the beefier 2GB DataPro completely pain-free (no ETFs or any of that business), and then switch back to the skinnier plan "over time." With DataPro, if you run over 2GB, you get another 1GB of data for $10, ad infinitum. So, if you use 5GB of data, you're looking at a $55 bill for data.
Tethering for the iPhone is here, finally! Hurray! Right? Wrong. First, consider that the old, non-iPhone tethering option offered you 5GB of tethering data for an extra $30 a month. The new plan charges you $20 extra to use the same 2GB pool of data for tethering. You are not buying extra data. You are simply paying extra to use it for tethering.
Let me repeat that: AT&T is charging you an additional twenty dollars a month based purely on how you use your data. This is bullshit, plain and simple.
Why does it matter how you use that 2GB? Why does it cost extra to use it in a slightly different manner, if you're paying for it all the same?
It's asburdity—especially when you consider the basic math. Under the old plan, you paid $60 a month for unlimited data, plus 5GB worth of tethering. Under the new plan, you will pay $45 for 2GB of data, total.
When you break out the dollar-per-byte value, showing just how much data you get per dollar, it becomes clear how outrageous the new pricing schemes are, whatever AT&T murmurs about how much data 98 percent of users actually consume.
The new plans apply to the iPad as well. Meaning the no-contract $30 unlimited data plan, the plan both Apple and AT&T pitched so hard, assuring us that we would never have to worry about data or contracts, is no more. If that $30-whenever-you-want-it unlimited data was a part of your calculus in buying the 3G iPad—it was part of mine—you've effectively been baited-and-switched. They promised one thing, and in just two months, it's gone. I suppose that's the downside of not having a contract with a multi-billion dollar corporation—you're free to ditch them, but they're free to screw you in return.
There is a way out, though it's really more like a way in, since it requires you to dive more securely into the vice grip of AT&T. If you already have an unlimited smartphone data plan and you renew your contract after June 7, as long as you don't change your plan, you can keep on keepin' on with your unlimited plan. In other words, you can get a new smartphone, but keep the same plan—then you're grandfathered in with unlimited data. Same deal with the iPad: If you start an unlimited data plan before June 7, and let it keep automatically renewing, you'll keep unlimited data.
If you add the $20 tethering option after June 7, though, you move to the new plans (which obviously screws iPhone owners interested in tethering). If you don't already have an unlimited smartphone data plan, and buy one after June 7, you'll get one of the new plans. If you come to AT&T after June 7, you'll get one of the new plans. If you start a new iPad 3G data plan after June 7, you'll get one of the new plans. (Here's a bit more on various scenarios and what'll happen with different configurations.)
So, what'll be? Tie yourself up more tightly with AT&T to preserve your data privileges, or join this brave new world, where you pay for every byte you eat? Any hopes you could've possibly had for unlimited 4G, you might as well shred them now. It's true, for most people (98 percent of users, says AT&T), 2GB a month might be fine—I've only used 1GB on my iPad 3G, even after streaming a ton of movies with the intent of killing my battery. And I'm not opposed to metered internet, per se. But I am opposed to higher costs per megabyte, BS charges for tethering, and broken iPad promises. And there's a principle at stake here, dammit. [AT&T]
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
AT&T making tourists even more annoying with free Times Square WiFi
[Photo courtesy of MarkArms]
AT&T Can Save Their Network... With Wi-Fi?
AT&T's latest idea is actually kind of brilliant on multiple levels: totally free Wi-Fi in Times Square. And it could be how they save their network.
It's no coincidence that AT&T already runs the largest Wi-Fi network in the country—20,000 hotspots in all—providing free Wi-Fi (to AT&T customers) in the kinds of places that people like to hang out and gobble data on their phones: Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and McDonald's. The Times Square Wi-Fi project is a pilot program, and depending on the results, possibly the first of many dense, high-traffic urban areas AT&T blankets in Wi-Fi.
Upfront, it's good publicity, with AT&T scoring major brownie points from folks for providing a legitimately useful service for free in a perfect location: Times Square is highly visible, a perpetually throbbing, pulsing throng of humanity, largely wafting through like a concrete lazy river. And it's largely tourists, who you can imagine exclaiming "ooooooOOO! free internet!" as they glisten, unaccustomed to walking distances greater than the length of a parking lot, upon discovering AT&T's open Wi-Fi network in the north central section of Times Square, near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th Street.
A huge mass of people. Well known landmark. Oh yes, and the AT&T service there is crap, as it is in many highly trafficked areas of New York.
Which brings us to the why: Because, instead of thousands and thousands of people simultaneously uploading their awesome photos or videos to Facebook or YouTube or wherever to share—gigs and gigs of data—over AT&T's bruised, congested cellular network, they can use free Wi-Fi, offloading traffic and reducing the strain on the network thousands of other people are trying to make phone calls over.
AT&T would be missing a huge opportunity if they failed to leverage Wi-Fi in a significant way, building their Wi-Fi network out to every huge, congested public space they can find. In New York, half of my calls fail in Union Square. Offloading traffic to a separate Wi-Fi network wouldn't completely solve the cell network crush in these superpacked areas, but it would seriously help, if these networks were promoted and maintained correctly. That is, people knew about them, and they were speedier than using the 3G network (since speed would be the incentive to use them). Their own numbers bear this out: AT&T served up 53.1 million Wi-Fi connections in the first three months of this year, over 500 percent growth from a year ago. Where would they rather have all that traffic? On the cell network, or on Wi-Fi?
True, Wi-Fi networks would introduce their own maintenance issues, but they would be cheaper and easier than constructing and tuning new cell towers, particularly in places that might already be stacked to the brim with towers, as many of these areas likely are. (The success of muni Wi-Fi in a few places suggests the economy of the idea.)
It's a pair of fabulous, depressing ironies: The way to save AT&T's network is by keeping us off of it. And the technology to save it is not some new R&D breakthrough, but a technology that even Grandma's got. [AT&T, Image via jliba/Flickr]
Sunday, 16 May 2010
AT&T's Super-fast HSPA+ Network Will Cover 250 Million People By the End of the Year
We're told that AT&T President and CEO John Stankey announced in New York today that their next gen 3G network—HSPA+, not 4G LTE—should cover around 250m people by the end of the year, pending their software rollout. What does this mean? If you've got a compatible device (you probably don't, right now) AT&T says this'll double your 3G speeds as compared to their HSPA 7.2Mbps network, which is already fairly peppy.
T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, which the company says will cover around 185m people by the end of the year, is stupidly fast, so if AT&T's even comes close, well, this is awesome news.
Monday, 10 May 2010
Why Streaming Video Over 3G Sucks
The thing about wirelessly streaming video to millions and millions of phones is that it's, like, hard.
Wireless vs. Wired
Why is it, you might be wondering, that wireless speeds can't just zoom zoom, faster faster, the way that Verizon or Comcast seem to press a button and magically, new, faster internet speeds appear. Well, for one, it's not that magical—even cable and fiber optic "wired" broadband costs billions of dollars per year for new internet pipe, with plenty of griping from carriers about videos and torrents and other bandwidth hoggery, hence all the buzz about net neutrality.
But there are more demanding constraints when it comes to wireless broadband:
• Speed: No matter what happens, wired technologies will be faster than wireless, because electrical impulses guided upon a wire, or optical impulses running through fiber, are more efficient than radio waves scattering themselves into the air in the hope of getting picked up.
• Reliability: Even when you can consistently pick up wireless signal, its strength may vary, not just because of how close you are to the cell tower or Wi-Fi hotspot, but because radio is blocked by the foliage on the trees, or the water in an aquarium.
• Cost: Delivering the same bandwidth wirelessly will always be more expensive, because radio waves—due to the above constraints—require massive amounts of power to work well. As we'll see, there's also a matter of paying for the right to use radio waves, a privilege that is only granted after payouts in the billions of dollars.
If that sounds a bit remedial, it's supposed to: Wireless always, always lags behind wired. Think of how much faster gigabit ethernet is compared to Wireless N. It's just how the world works. But people want wireless connections, in their pockets, for obvious reasons. What we're talking about is why it's so hard to pull off well.
What's Coming
See that chart up above? That's the growth of data traffic on AT&T's network over the past four years. Despite all the email, photos, music, tweets, apps and voice data traveling across the network, the single largest type of traffic is video. Funny thing is, the true video explosion hasn't happened yet.
What do I mean by that? Well, take Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming video service, for example. Right now, the only mobile device it's available on is the iPad, with an iPhone app promised by the end of the year. But Netflix's vision is to be on basically every device with a screen. Imagine a world where every phone, millions and millions of them, can stream nearly any movie over the air. Where phones with bigger, better, higher res screens demand serious quality video to take advantage of the extra pixels. Multiply that by apps current or future apps for Hulu, SlingPlayer, ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Vimeo, and oh yeah, YouTube.
Not to mention streaming video from phones, which are on the verge of universally breaching HD quality recording. Today, Microsoft's Kin phones—running on Verizon's 3G network—automatically upload every 5- and 8-megapixel photo, every 720p video you record, to the cloud. They're just the first, to be sure.
Two years from now, that bar at the far right of the chart may appear as tiny as the one at the beginning, compared to the traffic that's coming.
There are three major constraints on streaming video to a mobile device over the air: wireless spectrum, backhaul, and the device itself.
Need More Spectrum, Dude
Wireless spectrum, while invisible, is not an infinite resource. In fact, it's pretty damn constricted, at least in crowded urban areas.
To radically simplify it, an easy way to think about spectrum is kind of like a highway, divided into lanes. In the US, the FCC designates who and what's allowed to travel in each lane. (Check out the FCC's spectrum dashboard to see who owns what spectrum where.) The FCC typically divides the spectrum into "blocks" (stick with the mixed metaphor here) that are 10- or 20-MHz wide (so a carrier would get, say, a slice from 700MHZ to 710MHz). A standard configuration is for a carrier is to use half of each block to send a signal, and half to receive (outbound and inbound traffic). Each lane/block can only carry so much traffic. So when you get a ton of people pumping a ton of stuff over the airwaves in a small area, you run into issues.
The solution, though, is not simply to build more cell towers for a given frequency ad infinitum—it doesn't actually create more wireless spectrum in the universe for signals to travel on, and in fact, if you crowd too many towers too close together, you get bunch of noise and interference. Basically, you don't paint extra lines on a freeway in order to make way for more cars.
The best solution, from a carrier perspective, is to get more spectrum allotted from the FCC. Typically the rights have to be purchased for billions of dollars, as you might've noticed during the frenzied devouring of the 700MHz block by AT&T and Verizon for their upcoming 4G LTE networks. The thing about 4G is that is uses really fat channels—really wide lanes—which is why they can transfer data really fast.
As a side note, not all spectrum is the same: If you remember your high-school physics, lower frequencies travel farther with less energy, and penetrate buildings better too. As such, they are better suited for sharing massive amounts of wireless data, hence the popularity of the 700MHz block, for carriers who generally deal with spectrum from 1700MHz to 2100MHz.
No matter how many FCC auctions, limited spectrum availability for carriers dealing with a data tsunami is going to continue to be an issue—Clearwire says a 120MHz-wide slice of contiguous spectrum is what's needed for legit mobile broadband. The wireless industry association CTIA says the whole industry needs about 800MHz of spectrum total, as opposed to around 400MHz currently allotted. That's why part of the FCC's national broadband plan is to reallocate 300MHz more for mobile broadband in the next five years.
Need More Backhaul, Dude
Next up is backhaul, which is basically the connection between cell towers and the rest of the network. Even if a carrier had a virtually infinite amount of spectrum to carry all of that data back and forth between phones and towers in a fantasy world with exceptional signal strength and no interference, they'd still need fat pipes running from each and every cell tower.
Without decent backhaul, cell towers will run into the same kind of congestion problems you run into at home when you're trying to torrent more than your internet connection can handle. Everything slows down, and it sucks. The problem is that a huge portion of the cell towers in the country are still connected using slow copper lines, and running fiber backhaul to them is expensive. (No carrier will reveal how much of their backhaul is actually fiber for competitive reasons.)
There is also the option of a wireless microwave backhaul, but it requires cell towers that are in the same line of sight, and at some point the data still has to go wired.
The Phones, They Are Puny
The final constraint on delivering streaming video over the air? The phones themselves. Sure, the chips inside of them may technically support wireless broadband speeds of 3.6 or 7.2Mbps, or even faster, but actual speeds tend to be about half of their theoretical maximum, in part because running full blaze would kill their batteries that much faster. And remember those phones with the antennas you had to yank out? Tech may have gotten better, but those antennas went away for mostly cosmetic reasons—we'd be better off with big old metal wands sticking up out of our Droids and iPhones.
Let's Talk About the Video
Okay, so let's talk a bit about the actual video, and the ways it gets it to you. As it turns out, there are actually special standards in place for mobile video that are a bit different from the more familiar standards for the general internet, since they're designed specifically for phones. But, with phones getting better and better at handling the real web—since they're just very personal computers—a shift is happening, so that mobile standards are more like the real internet.
Some of the most standard, um, standards are defined by the 3GPP and 3GPP2—the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (roughly, GSM stuff, so in the USA, T-Mobile and AT&T) and 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (roughly, CDMA stuff, concerning Verizon and Sprint)—which lays out standards and specifications for telecommunications things, including mobile phone multimedia. In fact, they even have specified container formats for audio and video (the file candy coatings around the codec center, like h.264 or MPEG-4 or MP3) called 3GP (defined by the 3GPP for GSM phones) and 3G2 (designed by the 3GPP2 for CDMA phones) that most 3G phones can play.
More importantly, though, is the 3GPP's specification for a packet-switched streaming service—explained in great detail here (PDF)—and its protocols like Real Time Streaming Protocol and the Real Time Transfer Protocol (RTSP and RTP), which define one of the major frameworks used to stream video to mobile phones. The main thing to know about is that they're designed to be global standards, and they're built to adapt to wildly varying network conditions, adjusting bitrates on the fly. And if a carrier or service is serving 3GPP video to mobile phones, they need special servers to do it.
But because of wirelessly connected netbooks and devices like the iPad, more and more video comes over mobile networks in the form of good ol' HTTP. The hyper-text transfer protocol—the basis of all web browsers—comes in two general flavors. There's non-adaptive HTTP streaming, which is incredibly simple, just a stream pumped out at a given bitrate, no matter what the network conditions. Trouble is, it's so simple, you're apt to see plenty of stutters and freeze-ups if your network connection suddenly goes south.
HTTP adaptive streaming is what it sounds like, a smarter take on HTTP streaming that it adapts in real time to network conditions, switching to different bitrates depending on what the current bandwidth situation is like. It doesn't require a special server, either. It's actually what Apple uses as its standard for streaming video over-the-air to the iPhone and iPad. (They call it HTTP live streaming.) Microsoft has its own spin, called smooth streaming.
A quick word on codecs. Just like much of the internet has anointed h.264 as the standard for internet video, so goes mobile video. Verizon and SlingPlayer, for instance, both currently use WMV for their streams, but without promising anything, Verizon says "h.264 looks like it's got a lot of promise," while Sling says they're definitely moving to h.264 (as they already have on the iPhone), since it's a "tighter codec" that'll help them use a little bit less bandwidth and support hardware accelerated decoding. Of course, Apple's HTTP live streaming only supports h.264, so if you use an app that streams video over 3G, it's coming via HTTP live streaming, and it's encoded in h.264.
(In case you were curious, most of the 3GPP video is encoded in h.263 MPEG-4, with AMR audio, but it's gradually shifting to h.264, too.)
An Alternative Approach to Streaming
So, there are two broad approaches to get video to you—unicasting and multicasting. Unicasting is what I mostly described above, and what you're probably most familiar with, actually. When you look at a YouTube video, pull up a Netflix stream, watch a video on a site, or any kind of standard internet video, it's probably unicast—it's going to you on demand, from start to finish. Multicast, on the other hand, is basically broadcasting—it's being pumped out there continuously for any number of people to pick up. It works best for live events, like news or sports, but if you don't jump in at the start of an event, you'll miss something.
The most prolific of the multicasters in the US is Qualcomm's MediaFLO, which exists as a separate service, and is offered through Verizon's VCAST and AT&T's Mobile TV. It requires specific phones with MediaFLO-support, since they need the MediaFLO receiver and decoder chipset. The basic flow, if you will, is that Qualcomm takes content from a broadcaster, sends it out to its own national network of broadcast towers, and phones can tune in—just like broadcast TV, but beamed using the FLO protocol.
The advantage of multicasting is that it's extremely scalable: For crazy live events—say, the Super Bowl or World Cup—it's no more demanding to serve video to a million phones than it is to ten thousand phones. And since MediaFLO uses Qualcomm's own setup, it takes strain off of the main cell network for the carriers. That's why Qualcomm sees MediaFLO as complementary to the growing availability of streaming on-demand internet video.
The Current State of Video
What kind of video are we actually getting today, anyway? Does it actually look decent? Well, here's a brief assessment.
Verizon's VCAST service adapts to the device—meaning they have to encode a single video several times at varying quality levels—so at the top end, a phone like the HTC Incredible would get a stream at around 256kbps and 15fps and Verizon is exploring going higher, up to 400kbps with 30fps. AT&T still prefers 3GPP video, since most of its phones support it, streamed at bitrates between 64-200kbps. Qualcomm's MediaFLO broadcasts a single stream of 320x240 stream. And Apple's HTTP live streaming specs for cell networks—which every video streaming app for iPhone and iPad has to use, from Netflix to Sling—run from 64kbps to 240kbps. All of them are a long, long way from HD.
Netflix over 3G is actually impressively watchable today. But with 4G networks—LTE and WiMax—and new devices with faster, more energy efficient processors, a near-future where we're all streaming near-HD video anywhere and everywhere isn't so far away, if you squint hard enough.
You know, unless we really do explode the internet.
Still something you wanna know? Send questions about streaming video, sprinkling, or squirting here, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.
Friday, 30 April 2010
How To Make A 3G Router
Bought a Chumby One and aren't sure what to do with it? Turn the device into a 3G router! It's quick and you'll need nothing but a Chumby One, a 3G USB modem, and these instructions. [BunnieStudios via Make]
Thursday, 22 April 2010
How Much Less AT&T Is Sucking
Sure, sure, AT&T added another 1.9 million subscribers and activated 2.7 million new iPhones. But the most interesting slide in their earnings statement was the one detailing, statistically, how much less they suck. With graphs and stuff.
The improvements are indeed caveat-loaded. Dropped 3G calls in Manhattan, one of AT&T's admitted trouble spots, are down 6 percent, and 9 percent overall in NYC. That's great, especially if you consider they've been adding subscribers. But note that's not calls on EDGE, which some people are stuck with, or resort to in an attempt to pull a more reliable signal—which, since AT&T's mostly focused on improving 3G, presumably haven't gotten any better.
Faster 3G speeds via AT&T's deployment of HSPA 7.2—32-47 percent faster downloads—are only happening where they've actually deployed fiber backhaul. Thing is, limited backhaul—the pipes that actually run to cell towers—has always been a huge aspect of AT&T's data crunch. The fact the boosts are only happening where they've deployed new fiber backhaul shows how tapped out they are. Given that they made nearly a billion dollars more in data revenues vs. last year, this is non-trivial. [AT&T]
Monday, 12 April 2010
This Is How to Fix Your Horrible AT&T Reception: 3G MicroCell
I tapped dial. There's ringing, and the call goes through. It's the first call I've made from my house in two years. All it took was AT&T's 3G MicroCell to give me 5 solid bars where there were none.
Price
$150, no monthly fee, with no strings attached—but it counts against your monthly cell minutes. It's $20 a month for unlimited MicroCell calling. If you get an unlimited plan, the MicroCell drops to $50 after rebate. (If you have AT&T broadband, it knocks another $50 off.) Update: If you complain loudly enough to the right rep, you might be able to snag one for free.
It's a Lifechanger
A box about as big an oversized cable modem, the MicroCell is a mini cellphone tower that plugs into and passes calls through your existing broadband connection, giving you about a 40-foot radius of solid cell reception. Dead zones crackle to life; calls can be made without dropping.
The setup process is mostly plug and play—if you've got a router, it jacks into that, or if you plug your computer directly into a modem, it has a port for passthrough. You just activate the MicroCell through AT&T's website and then wait for about an hour as it springs to life (which is agonizing if you're revving to make the first call from your house in over two years. The MicroCell's only inconvenient installation requirement is a view of the sky for GPS reception—a necessity for 911 location services (and presumably the way AT&T prevents you from using it overseas).
It only works with AT&T numbers, and you can only have 10 numbers registered at once tapping into the MicroCell. Since you have to assign the numbers through AT&T's site every time you want to add one, friends who're just stopping by (or your neighbors) won't be able to take advantage of your newly awesome reception, unless you add them to the list. And, even if you're friendly enough to add your buddies to the list, if they (or you, for that matter) have original iPhones, they won't be able to hop on—the MicroCell supports 3G phones only. The plus side is that it's the only femtocell that supports data, so you can actually use it to check email on your phone.
AT&T's stated range of 40 feet held up flawlessly in our tests, passing through a wall and delivering strong reception 30 feet outside of the apartment (thanks to its combo of 850MHz and 1900MHz bands). Where it got sticky was at the edge of the reception zone—our test phones continued to show full bars until the connection abruptly died completely, and the phones began hunting for new signals.
It's nothing short of revelatory, to suddenly have full reception where there was none, to make calls where one couldn't before.
There is a philosophical problem though: Should you buy a device that makes a service you already pay for simply work the way it's supposed to? Every carrier offers some form of in-home extension of their service—Sprint's Airave femotcell, Verizon's Network Extender, and T-Mobile's @Home—and they all charge you for it, even though you're routing calls over your own broadband connection. (And even though using the femtocell eats up your minutes, unless you pay even more for unlimited.) It sucks. Maybe we should take a stand, refuse to pay more just to make cell service usable, and demand that they fix it or give the boxes away.
On other the hand, if you're not interested in making a stand, and just want to use your phone on the toilet after two years of not being able to, maybe $150 is worth it to you.
[AT&T]
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
AT&T MicroCell 3G
Sure, we kinda think AT&T's cell-reception boosting MicroCell 3G should be like, free, since it's using your pipes to route calls, but I suppose this is about as swell as we could've hoped for—$150 with no monthly fee.
A femtocell, briefly, is sorta like a mini cell tower—it hooks into your broadband connection, and amplifies the cell signal inside your house. The difference between AT&T's MicroCell 3G and Sprint's Airave femtocell, which is $100 plus a mandatory $5/month fee, is that the AT&T MicroCell also transfers data, not just voice. (Though I'm not sure why wouldn't just use Wi-Fi in your own house.) Still, the AT&T femotcell works out cheaper over the course of the year. Up to 10 lines can be setup to use it, and 4 can use it simultaneously.
It counts against your minutes while you're using it, unless you spring for unlimited MicroCell minutes, which is $20 a month for individuals or families. That's a bit crappier than Sprint's pricing, which is $10/month for an individual line, and $20 a month for multiple. But, you get a $100 mail-in/rebate, making the MicroCell $50 in that scenario. And if you buy U-Verse or AT&T DSL at the same time, you can knock another $50 off making it free. They start rolling out next month, but it's going to take until the end of the year before they're available everywhere. I pray dearly SF and NY are on the very tip top of that list.
AT&T* today announced that AT&T 3G MicroCell plans to begin its national roll out beginning in mid April, with new markets activating in cities across the continental U.S. for the next several months. AT&T 3G MicroCell is an innovative solution that allows residential customers to route wireless phone calls and data connections (or sessions) across a home broadband connection. This solution is designed to benefit customers who live in homes that have coverage impediments that consistently interrupt wireless spectrum, such as dense wall and roof construction or unfavorable terrain.AT&T 3G MicroCell is the only femtocell to support both 3G data and voice services. Developed in conjunction with Cisco and in a public trial in select markets since September, AT&T 3G MicroCell is available for a one-time cost of $149.99.
Consumers with AT&T 3G MicroCell will be able to easily activate the device the same day it is purchased, thanks to easy, self-install instructions. Technical support is available for customers who need it.
Consumers manage AT&T 3G MicroCell though their online MyWireless account at www.att.com/mywireless. Through this online management, only those phones chosen by the customer may use the MicroCell. Customers may define up to 10 lines to have access and up to four may operate on it simultaneously. Minutes used through the MicroCell affect only the account of the phone making the call – there is no requirement to purchase separate service for the 3G MicroCell.
In addition, AT&T will offer a companion rate plan option for MicroCell customers – especially customers on Family Talk plans — who want to supplement their existing voice plans. For $19.99 a month, individual or Family Talk customers can make unlimited calls through a 3G MicroCell, without using minutes in their monthly wireless voice plan.
Consumers who select 3G MicroCell calling plans at purchase are also eligible to receive a $100 mail-in-rebate toward the purchase of AT&T 3G MicroCell – effectively making the device about $50. Customers who also purchase a new line of broadband service with AT&T (DSL or U-verse 1.5MB or higher) are also eligible for $50 via mail-in-rebate– effectively making the device about $100. If a customer is eligible for both rebate options, the customer will be able to get the device for $0, after mail-in rebate.
For more information on AT&T 3G MicroCell, visit www.att.com/3gmicrocell. For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.
[AT&T]
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
T-Mobile's Crazy Fast HSPA+ 3G Network To Reach Over 100 Metro Areas This Year
T-Mobile has announced that they're rolling out their super speedy HSPA+ network to over 100 metro areas covering 185 million people in 2010. More than half of that will be complete by the middle of the year. That's aggressive.
HSPA+ is an easier roll out than 4G, because it's overlaid over T-Mobile's existing 3G footprint. It also gets competitive speeds; its 21Mbps is three times what you're used to from current 3G technologies. And in the few regions it's currently available, like Philadelphia, it really does fly. Even better, most current T-Mobile devices are already compatible with HSPA+, meaning that customers won't need to upgrade their smartphone to get an upgraded network experience.
Products that'll get the HSPA+ treatment include a Dell Mini 10 netbook—welcome news, given that it's our favorite of the current crop. It'll only be available in limited markets to start.
There's also the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick, available next week, which is the first HSPA+ stick available from a major carrier.
For phones, there's the Nokia Nuron, and the Cliq XT, and most enticingly the HTC HD2.
There are also plans for personal Hot Spots, although nothing concrete was announced today, and the execs were totally mum on tethering.
T-Mobile to Rollout the Nation's Fastest 3G Wireless Network with HSPA+ to More than 100 Metropolitan Areas in 2010
T-Mobile delivers home broadband-like experiences on-the-go when surfing the Web, accessing multimedia features, sharing content and more
LAS VEGAS and BELLEVUE, Wash. - March 23, 2010 - Today at International CTIA Wireless 2010, T-Mobile USA, Inc., showcased the nation's fastest 3G wireless network on its latest mobile broadband devices. The company unveiled plans to upgrade its national high-speed 3G service to the High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technology, which will deliver customers data speeds faster than the current 3G network technology1 . By the end of 2010, T-Mobile expects to have HSPA+ deployed across the breadth of its 3G footprint, covering more than 100 metropolitan areas and 185 million people.
T-Mobile hosted live demonstrations of the home broadband-like HSPA+ data speeds on a variety of products including the new Dell™ Inspiron™ Mini 10 with T-Mobile® webConnect™ - T-Mobile's first netbook - which launches March 24 online and in T-Mobile stores in select markets.2
"Consumers want a mobile broadband experience that's easy and as good as their connection at home on the best wireless devices available," said Neville Ray, senior vice president of engineering and operations for T-Mobile USA. "This year T-Mobile will upgrade its national 3G network to HSPA+ which will support faster speeds and give customers a superior wireless data experience when they access their mobile social network, stream videos or share content. T-Mobile's network is primed to deliver the speeds that today's data users crave."
T-Mobile successfully launched its HSPA+ network service in Philadelphia last fall providing customers access to one of the fastest and most modern wireless networks in the U.S. T-Mobile now has made HSPA+ commercially available in new markets including major areas of New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and suburban Washington, D.C., with deployment in Los Angeles coming very soon.
The company will continue to aggressively expand the availability of HSPA+ in additional 3G markets, putting the necessary backhaul capacity in place to support the very fast speeds. Today, its 3G high-speed data network covers more than 206 million people.
T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is outperforming competing 3G wireless networks with speeds up to three times faster. Blazing fast actual peak download speeds3 were demonstrated today in Las Vegas using both new and current mobile broadband devices, including the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket™ USB Laptop Stick, the first HSPA+ capable device from a national U.S .wireless carrier; the Dell Inspiron Mini 10; the HTC HD2; the Motorola CLIQ XT™ and the T-Mobile myTouch® 3G.
"The webConnect Rocket and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 are the latest mobile broadband products that deliver real customer benefits with faster speeds available today," said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer for T-Mobile USA. "And the great thing about T-Mobile's 3G network evolution is its backward compatibility - most of our 3G smartphones will deliver a better mobile Web experience. Customers don't have to spend money on a device upgrade, which is a rarity in consumer electronics."
Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with T-Mobile webConnect
T-Mobile's newest mobile broadband product, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, features built-in access to T-Mobile's 3G network, Windows® 7 - Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system - and the Intel® Atom™ processor N450 for easy Web surfing, instant messaging, e-mail, social networking, photo sharing and superb multimedia playback in one small, ultra-portable device. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is small and lightweight, weighing just three pounds, and its integrated six-cell battery easily provides up to eight hours of continuous usage. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 also comes preloaded with T-Mobile's webConnect Manager software to help customers manage usage and connections, including connecting to T-Mobile's 3G network, Wi-Fi and access to thousands of T-Mobile HotSpot network locations nationwide.Pricing and Availability
The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 will be available tomorrow nationwide online at http://www.t-mobile.com and in T-Mobile retail locations in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami for $199.99 with two-year contract and qualifying webConnect data plan.For more information about T-Mobile's webConnect family of products, including the webConnect Rocket and Dell Inspiron Mini 10, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com/webconnect.
3G coverage is not available everywhere. For more information about T-Mobile's 3G services, mobile broadband products, device features, or the offers and services mentioned, see http://www.t-mobile.com.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
T-Mobile HSPA+ Speed Test: 3G Gets Pumped Up to 21Mbps
While the other carriers are looking past 3G to 4G technologies—Sprint with its WiMax already up and running, and AT&T and Verizon banking on LTE—T-Mobile is the one doing the most to upgrade the 3G network it already has in place. Overhauling their existing HSPA 3G network to HSPA+ promises theoretical speeds of 21Mbps—three times faster than the 3G we know and don't quite love.
In my testing throughout Philadelphia, the first city to get the upgrade, I found that I was routinely getting triple the speeds we expect from 3G nationally—take a look at our nationwide 3G megatest if you need a refresher—with the HSPA+ network averaging in the high 3Mbps range and peaking at 7.81Mbps in one location.
The 3x jump makes a big difference. Consistently averaging download speeds in the high 3Mbps range might not seem like a terrific improvement, but in practice it puts the experience a lot closer to the broadband you take for granted at home than the crippled access you're often stuck with on 3G. And I really tried to push the HSPA+ network by using the internet the way I would at home, at my most extreme. At one point, I was uploading a several-hundred megabyte file to FTP briskly (around 150KB/sec), downloading a torrent even more briskly (~350KB/sec), and still loading web pages quickly and all at once, instead of piece by frustrating piece. At the end of the day, when I was done with all my testing and just catching up with the stuff I follow on the internet, I didn't immediately ditch the 3G and jump back on Wi-Fi. I didn't feel the need to.
Philadelphia is the first city to get pumped up to HSPA+, though T-Mobile is aiming for coverage in major cities across the nation by the end of the year. Since it's not a new network, just an expansion of their current one, many customers who live in areas with HSPA+ coverage will see improvements in speed with the gear they're using right now. Anything that's HSPA 7.2 compatible—that includes HTC HD2, myTouch, Moto CLIQ, Moto CLIQ XT, Samsung Behold II, HTC Touch Pro 2, Dash 3G—will notice snappier speeds. But to really see things crank, you'll need a dedicated HSPA+ device, and T-Mobile's first is the webConnect Rocket USB stick. I tried out the Rocket, which works with Mac and PC, all over Philly, and was impressed with the results.
I tried the same tests we used in our nationwide 3G test: several runs of speedtest.net, several timed page loads of the Wikimedia Commons Hubble page, and several timed loads of a big Hubble image itself.
Here's where I went. Some of the places were suggested by T-Mobile as optimal testing spots—and cheating or not, I followed them in search of the biggest bandwidth readings. But even when I was off on my own, I found that my speeds rarely dipped to levels currently attainable by standard 3G, and were often, as you can see, much much faster, including latency under 100ms at almost every location.
View Philly HSPA+ Testing in a larger map
The webConnect Rocket USB stick is on sale now and can be purchased for $99 with a 2-year contract or $199 without one. With the contract, you get T-Mobile's EvenMore Data Plan, which will run you $59.99/mo for 5GB data or $29.99/mo for 200MB data, and without it the Rocket gets the EvenMore Data Plus Plan, costing $49.99/mo for 5GB and $19.99 a month for 200MB. If you pay full price up front, the stick pays for itself in 10 months, which might be a good deal, as it's just about how long HSPA+ will enjoy its mobile broadband crown until AT&T and Verizon start deploying LTE in 2011.
That 5GB data cap, however, could be a problem. With the 3G speeds we're used to just surfing the web can be a chore. Downloading big files or watching HD video were usually out of the question. But since the HSPA+ feels like your broadband at home, it's easy to treat it that way, and I can imagine users racking up 5GB dangerously quickly. By my back of the napkin calculations, at the speeds I saw, it'd only take about 4 hours of continuously downloading files to eat up your month's allowance. I forsee customers clamoring for beefed up plans to match T-Mobile's beefed up network.
T-Mobile says they are planning "broad national deployment" for HSPA+ by the end of 2010 and will be naming specific cities at the CTIA conference starting next week. How aggressively they roll out the upgrades will determine the fate of HSPA+, if it emerges as a worthwhile pre-4G alternative or if it falls to the footnotes of mobile broadband history. But if you have the need for speed and HSPA+ makes its way to your city, it's definitely worth your attention. It's so fast, you might forget it's 3G.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Dell Mini 9 Available for $99 with a Two-Year AT&T Contract
AT&T and Dell are now working together to offer the Dell Mini 9 for $99 with the purchase of a two-year service agreement that'll cost you $60 a month.
The offer is valid until January 31, and in order to receive the $99 pricing, you have to mail in a $350 Dell rebate. The two-year contract must be a qualifying AT&T LaptopConnect agreement. The subscription is pretty pricey, but its cheaper than the $120 Dell Mini price is still lower than it was a few months ago. [Dell]
Velocity and Turbo: Your Two New Options for AT&T LaptopConnect 3G
If you want to use a dedicated 3G dongle for your laptop, hardware choices are always limited. Here are AT&Ts two new offerings, the LG Turbo and Option Velocity. And no, you're not the only one who thought "American Gladiators."
LG Turbo
Free with a two-year contract, the Velocity is a no-frills card, with HSPA 7.2 support, MicroSD slot for thumb drive capability and a swiveling head that should allow you to—well, if you've actually used one of these 3G sticks, you know that they can be unwieldy. So it helps.
Option Velocity
Despite its plastic design, the Turbo is AT&T's new premium 3G stick. It, too, supports MicroSD, but it also adds aGPS and will set you back $30 with two-year contract.
Both new dongles will be available starting March 7th.
DALLAS, March 1, 2010 – AT&T* today announced two new 3G LaptopConnect devices: the AT&T USBConnect Turbo from LG and AT&T USBConnect Velocity from Option. Both will be available in AT&T retail stores, business channels and online beginning March 7. The Turbo and Velocity enable customers to stay connected on their laptop while on the go with the nation's fastest 3G network.
The Velocity, is the first GPS-enabled LaptopConnect device from AT&T. The built-in aGPS functionality opens the door to location-based applications making it easier than ever for customers to get to their desired destination. Option offers a free software application, the Option GPS Control Panel, that leverages location-enabled sites like Yahoo! Maps and Bing for directions and local points of interest. Option GPS Control Panel will be available for download on the Option support web page beginning March 7. Additionally, through TeleNav Track LITE™ and Xora GPS Locator from AT&T, enterprise customers can add tracking and location awareness thus improving response time by easily locating the closest worker to a service call.
The Turbo is AT&T's first LaptopConnect device from LG and features a compact, lightweight design. Turbo's HSPA 7.2 capability offers a high speed Internet connection that allows users to meet their professional and personal computing needs away from their office or home computer. The ergonomic design and unique USB connector makes Turbo compatible with a wide variety of laptop configurations.
Both devices feature an integrated microSD card slot making them portable storage devices that allow users to carry the data and files they need at their fingertips. LaptopConnect devices allow customers to get more done on-the-go as well as keep up to date with their professional network from anywhere AT&T provides data coverage.
"Velocity and Turbo both offer a first for AT&T: our first GPS enabled LaptopConnect device and our first LaptopConnect device from LG," said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "In addition to being compatible with our latest HSPA technology, the two devices let AT&T customers get more done while on the go. From traveling professionals to students, AT&T offers a LaptopConnect solution for everyone."
Pricing and Availability
Beginning March 7, both the Turbo and Velocity will be available online and in AT&T stores nationwide. AT&T USBConnect Turbo will be available for free after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month (pay $99.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and DataConnect plan required).AT&T USBConnect Velocity will be available for $29.99 after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month (pay $129.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and DataConnect plan required).