Vision - November/December 2008 - (Page 44)

tech speak defining the digital world ] • [ By Murray Slovick In the U.S., four providers now offer 3G service: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. Similarly, some consumers have expressed unhappiness about how fast the Apple 3G iPhone downloads data over AT&T’s 3G wireless network. In at least three cases, individuals have filed separate lawsuits in Alabama, California and New Jersey claiming Apple and AT&T deceived consumers by promising but not delivering “twice as fast as 2G” Internet performance. Both AT&T and Apple reject the plaintiffs’ charges that the phone/ network combination is running at speeds below the 700 Kbps (kilobits per second) to 1.7 Mbps specified for AT&T’s currently deployed HSDPA (high speed download packet access) 3G cellular data network. Based on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards, to be considered 3G a network must be able to transmit 144 Kbps to users traveling in a car, 384 Kbps f you’ve watched an automobile com- to users traveling by foot, and 2 Mbps to users mercial recently—at the end, the vol- in fixed locations. In the U.S., four providers ume drops and the announcer quietly now offer 3G service: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile ticks off the caveats, beginning with and Verizon Wireless. “actual mileage may vary”, which Worldwide, 3G deployments currently means you’ll likely get fewer miles per gallon support downlink speeds ranging from than the on-screen graphics suggest. about 1 Mbps to 7.2 Mbps, but it must be The notion of “it may work differently in noted that these are peak speeds, and most your situation” is not unknown to connections will be considerably users of consumer electronics. How slower. To that point, if you visit Apple’s 3G iPhone website, you will fast your PC performs common tasks see the following statement: “Actual and how rapidly you can download throughput speed varies.” multimedia content via Wi-Fi are Why is there need for a distwo examples that immediately claimer? The answer is in day-tocome to mind. In the case of Wi-Fi, Murray Slovick day use mobile phone throughput the 802.11n standard has a theoretical speed maximum of 300 Mbps (megabits depends on many factors, including cellular per second), yet the typical transfer rate most network capacity, user location, how many other users are connected in your vicinity users see is only around 75 Mbps. In the automotive world, motorists and and how much data they’re transferring. environmental groups have expressed frus- What is more, changes in data rates can be tration with fuel-saving claims made for sudden and unexpected, much like a hidden certain car models, asserting the vehicles drop on a roller coaster. You can be dashing may not live up to EPA mileage estimates along at 1 Mbps or better one minute only plastered on window stickers. Car compa- to have the speed brakes put on, slowing nies respond that other factors, notably you to a 100 Kbps jog a moment later. how you drive, will affect gas mileage. If you drive like the Little Old Lady from Pasadena, Some of the Limiting Factors: who is “gonna get a ticket because she can’t • Where the phone is used. Neither AT&T keep her foot off the accelerator”, you won’t nor its competitors cover the entire U.S. achieve the EPA estimates. with 3G service. Industry estimates put AT&T’s coverage at 300 to 350 of the top metropolitan markets. When the fast network isn’t available, users may find that they have dropped down to 2.5G for data and 2G for voice, which is slower than the 3G service expected. What’s more, in these metro areas skyscrapers can reflect and block signals, while in suburban locations you may be on the edge of 3G network coverage, which can again result in a downshift to 2G. • Tower issues. Cellular towers may not communicate well with the handset or may be overloaded by too many users, resulting in slowdowns. Previously installed towers could be spaced apart based on the requirements of 2G technology, which has a longer effective range than 3G. • Operator issues. Network operator capacity may play a role. In August, French network operator Orange admitted it had reduced the load on its 3G network by capping data transfers at 384 Kbps. • Phone issues. How well a mobile phone performs is directly impacted by the speed of the 3G chipset (processing elements, usually a baseband processor and an application processor) and how efficient the software stack is. How fast a phone displays Web pages also is determined in part by how fast its mobile browser can load and render pages. So what is a speed-hungry mobile phone consumer to do? Be patient. All of the networks and handset makers are working to improve download and upload speeds, and plans are under way for the next-generation of mobile broadband systems, called 4G, to be deployed in the 2010–2015 time frame. It now appears 4G will have two flavors, one called LTE (for Long Term Evolution, a further development of GSM), and its direct competitor WiMAX, based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. LTE and WiMax are expected to offer real world download rates of 100 Mbps and upload rates of 50 Mbps while increasing network capacity. The LTE standard allows for 326-Mbps download and 86-Mbps upload speeds. So be tolerant, the best is yet to come. • www.ce.org I 3G: Results May Vary 44 November/December 2008 H Jones/Jupiter Images http://www.ce.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Vision - November/December 2008

Vision - November/December 2008 Contents Shapiro's Spectrum In this Issue The Economist C4 Trends Going Global Visionary CES Unveiled Eco-Intelligence Is Vital in a Sustainable Global Market XGP— A Game Changer Enhancing the Tech Experience High-Definition Decade Public-Private Partnerships CEA Newsline Tech Speak Tech Policy Eye on Business Market Insider Just the Stats

Vision - November/December 2008

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