Friday, November 1, 2002
Future of 3G
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THOUGHT" @ 10:32 AM
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-964195.html
Some believe 3G will revolutionize the way we use mobile devices and wireless services. In my mind 3G, the next generation wireless wide area network, means no more than a bit (no pun intended) faster communications. However, I definately like "faster" so that's ok with me. I just found this interesting article on the subject: "Mobile phone inventor: 3G is dead".
"3G has problems, according to Marty Cooper. And he should know, the chief executive of high-speed wireless company ArrayComm is credited with inventing the mobile phone while working at Motorola. "We engineers knew years ago that 3G as presently constituted is essentially dead," said Cooper, speaking at the Broadband DSL Forum conference in Berlin. The director-general of standards body ETSI had little to say in response. Cooper's comment--in a speech which concentrated on the possibility of faster wireless by other means--drew an indignant response from Karl Heinz Rosenbrock, the head of the European standards body ETSI (which is in charge of the UMTS specifications on which some 3G networks are based) who was in the audience. ... But Cooper dismissed these services: "The hype said that UMTS would give users 2Mbps channels, but the truth is that it has 1.1Mbps channels, which must be shared by people to be economic," he said. "It also needs a reasonable number of base stations. In practice users will get about 80kbps, at a much greater cost than GPRS, which currently gives 50 to 60kbps. My reaction is not much more than a yawn."
Some believe 3G will revolutionize the way we use mobile devices and wireless services. In my mind 3G, the next generation wireless wide area network, means no more than a bit (no pun intended) faster communications. However, I definately like "faster" so that's ok with me. I just found this interesting article on the subject: "Mobile phone inventor: 3G is dead".
"3G has problems, according to Marty Cooper. And he should know, the chief executive of high-speed wireless company ArrayComm is credited with inventing the mobile phone while working at Motorola. "We engineers knew years ago that 3G as presently constituted is essentially dead," said Cooper, speaking at the Broadband DSL Forum conference in Berlin. The director-general of standards body ETSI had little to say in response. Cooper's comment--in a speech which concentrated on the possibility of faster wireless by other means--drew an indignant response from Karl Heinz Rosenbrock, the head of the European standards body ETSI (which is in charge of the UMTS specifications on which some 3G networks are based) who was in the audience. ... But Cooper dismissed these services: "The hype said that UMTS would give users 2Mbps channels, but the truth is that it has 1.1Mbps channels, which must be shared by people to be economic," he said. "It also needs a reasonable number of base stations. In practice users will get about 80kbps, at a much greater cost than GPRS, which currently gives 50 to 60kbps. My reaction is not much more than a yawn."
