re: "3G" is here in the States ...
<< The Koreans with 1x beat the Finns and their GPRS like a drum. >>
How about the Finns and their GPRS beating the Americans with 1x like a drum?
Now let me see ... for $65 per month plus taxes that will boost that to about $75 per month I can get 5 hours of wireless packet data transmission (or voice) during the hours of 7AM to 9 PM at approximately V.90 speeds. Not bad. 25¢ a minute and 40¢ if I run over.
Works out to about $7.00 per megabyte.
Well ...
... good things take time and throughput should increase sonewhat if the Koreans ever get through obstructing the approval of cdma2000 Release A v. 6.
>> Verizon's 3G Not That Great
Henry Norr
February 4, 2002
San Francisco Chronicle
Page E - 1
sfgate.com
So when do we get 4G?
For years the telecommunications industry has been telling mobile users impatient for wireless data access at reasonable speeds to wait for 3G -- a new, third generation of cellular technologies, after the early analog systems and today's voice-oriented, slow-data digital services.
Last week Verizon Wireless became the first company to roll out commercial 3G service in the United States. It announced a new data service called Express Network, based on a CDMA technology known officially as 1xRTT.
Existing gear can't take advantage of the service, but Verizon has introduced a new $80 phone, the Kyocera 2235, that can. A cable-and-software kit that makes it a wireless modem for PC laptops is another $80. For $300, you can get the Sierra Wireless AirCard 555, a credit-card-sized modem for Windows laptops or Pocket PC handhelds with PC Card jacket.
Broadband It Ain't
For the last few days I've been using the AirCard 555 in a Windows XP laptop. On the whole, it has worked fairly well. Older wireless data services (leaving aside, for the moment, the now-defunct Ricochet) are barely adequate for plain-text e-mail and messaging, but simply not up to the challenge of the Web.
With the AirCard 555, however, you can cruise the Web at tolerable speeds. And it works anywhere within the Express Network coverage area -- inside buildings, on park benches, even in your car.
That's unquestionably a big advance. Compared with the hype around 3G, however, the new Verizon service is a letdown.
Yes, it finally gets wireless data bandwidth and, therefore, functionality beyond the level of a 1980s dial-up modem. But instead of delivering what you'd expect from a 21st century technology, it provides levels of performance and reliability roughly equivalent to a mid-'90s modem -- minus the wires.
To Verizon's credit, its news release about the new service is relatively modest in its performance claims: "Users should expect average speeds between 40 and 60 Kbps."
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to reach even that level. Repeated tests with an online bandwidth meter suggested by a Verizon engineer (bandwidthplace. com/speedtest), taken from a variety of locations in San Francisco and the East Bay, showed a typical 30 to 35 Kbps throughput. Once, from my desk at The Chronicle, I hit 43 Kbps, but that was the only time I topped 40.
What do those speeds mean in terms of real-life activity? Over the last few days, I've used the AirCard for my normal online activities -- checking news and technology sites, using Google for searches, reading and sending e-mail through a Web interface, ordering books from Amazon.com, even logging into The Chronicle's publishing system through a virtual private network.
Even though I think of myself as someone with little tolerance for slow technologies, I rarely felt seriously hamstrung by the speed of my wireless connection.
On the other hand, I had the same sloggy feeling I do when using a 56-K dial-up modem -- you wait 10 seconds here, 15 seconds there for a page to open or a screen to fill.
It's a far cry from the responsiveness of Ricochet in the last months before its bankrupt owner, Metricom, shut it down last summer, or what I get every day at home from my 802.11b wireless network connected to a DSL line.
As the Verizon engineer pointed out, though, Ricochet is gone, and my 802. 11b network works only within a radius of about 150 feet. The Verizon network is up and running today, and it encompasses most of the Bay Area from Gilroy to Petaluma.
It's also available in the Salt Lake City area (just in time for the Olympics) and along the Eastern seaboard from Virginia to Portland, Maine. Coverage maps are at www.verizonwireless.com/express_network/availability.html.
By the end of this year, according to Verizon, it expects to have most of its nearly nationwide network upgraded to 3G. In the meantime, where the Express Network isn't available, the AirCard 555 can tap into Verizon's misnamed Quick 2 Net data network, which operates at 14.4 Kbps.
Windows Wobbles
Although at times I stayed connected for hours on end, at other times -- from the same locations -- my connection repeatedly disappeared after just a few minutes of routine use. Getting reconnected was often a chore. A couple of times I had to restart the whole system to get back on track.
Part of the problem is an uneasy, inconsistent relationship between the AirCard software and Windows XP's networking code.
According to Verizon, the former is all you need to get online, and sometimes that was true for me. But on other occasions, XP's Network Connections window would pop up unbidden as I tried to connect or even in the middle of an established session, and then the two programs would give contradictory information about the status of my connection.
I'm still trying to discern the pattern in all this, but it's definitely a problem. Verizon says it has asked the Sierra Wireless programmers to investigate.
Paying The Piper
Then there's the problem of cost. To use the 3G service, you need to sign up for a Verizon plan (even if you already have one for an existing phone) that costs at least $35 a month, then add a $30 monthly surcharge for Express Network access.
That brings us to the madness of minutes. Although Verizon will eventually offer alternative plans based on data packets sent and received, for now it has opted to charge by time online. Through March 15 you get unlimited data minutes, but after that date they'll be subtracted from the time your basic contract provides.
Data access is subject to the same restrictions that apply to voice time. Verizon, for example, is currently hyping a $35/3,500-minute plan. It looks great at first glance, but it turns out that 3,200 of those minutes are night and weekend minutes.
If you spend much time online during the workweek, you'll quickly exceed your 300 anytime minutes, and then you'll get socked with 40 cents for each additional minute.
Of course, you can sign up for a plan that offers more minutes at the times you need them. But whatever choice you make, you'll wind up paying a pretty penny.
Even moderate users will almost certainly end up paying much more than the $70 a month Ricochet service cost -- a rate that was widely disparaged as too expensive, even though it allowed unlimited access at much higher speeds than Verizon's Express Network does.
Ricochet Reborn?
These reflections inspired me to put in a call to Aerie Networks, the Denver outfit that picked up key Ricochet assets in Metricom's bankruptcy sale last fall.
At the time, Aerie officials said they would work with communities and local service providers in an effort to restore service to at least parts of the Bay Area sometime early this year.
I asked John Dee, Aerie's vice president of sales and product management, where things stand today. "I can't be specific about dates," he said, "but I'd like to see some of the initial areas coming online in Q2."
Even if Aerie can meet that goal, its service won't be comparable to Verizon's Express Network for a long time, if ever. That's because Aerie hopes to succeed where Metricom failed by reviving the system gradually, giving first priority to underserved communities -- places that still can't get broadband access via cable or DSL.
That might well be a sensible strategy for Aerie, and I wish it luck at it. But it's not a model that addresses the needs of mobile users seeking fast access to the Internet wherever they happen to be.
At best, it will be years before the company comes close to the regionwide coverage Verizon already offers.
Bottom Line
Considering throughput, prices and bugs, it's hard to get excited about the advent of 3G. But if you want the Web wirelessly, and you or your company can afford the price, and you're willing to put up with some glitches, Verizon's new service is here today and should meet your needs. That's more than I can say about any other wireless technology. <<
- Eric - |
