Posted on 01/12/2004 2:56:23 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Soooooooooo, after MANY MANY hours on the phone with AT&T (one marathon day was 4 hours on the phone with AT&T!) - I got them to admit that the service I signed up for, was not the service I was paying for. So they let me out of the contract with no penalty.
It still took another 3 months to straighten out the billing. (Not only did they want to levy a fee for canceling the contract, they wanted to collect interest..)
We switched to T-Mobile. Also learned how to re-program the SIM card so that the Sony Ericsson phone could connect with T-Mobile service.
Same area -- same usage patterns and T-Mobile is hands down much better. Every place where AT&T wouldn't work, T-Mobile does. I'm a happy camper. AT&T and GSM = crap. T-Mobile and GSM = very good.
In Europe, the SIM cards must be "open". In otherwords, its against the law for a cell phone provider to place "lock out" codes in the SIM card. AT&T here "Locks" the SIM card so that it can only be used with the AT&T service. I learned how to "unlock" the SIM -- othewise the phone would have been useless.
Information Appliance Associates said Monday that it has released single-user software that synchronizes data between Macintosh desktop computers and devices based on Microsoft's Smartphone platform. Specifically, the company's PocketMac Smartphone Edition synchronizes iCal calendars, to do lists and tasks, Entourage data and the OS X address book, the company said in a statement. Synchronization can occur either via the phone's USB cradle or via Bluetooth or 802.11b networks such as Apple's AirPort.
The company said its software also integrates with Apple's iSync, iTunes and iPhoto. In addition, the software can synchronize specific data files. The company said the software currently supports smartphones by Samsung, Motorola, Mitac and Orange.
Verizon to Spend $1B on Wireless Upgrade
By Bruce Meyerson, AP Business Writer, January 8, 2004
NEW YORK (AP)—Two months after AT&T Wireless launched the nation's fastest wireless Internet service, Verizon Wireless says it will spend $1 billion to reclaim the lead with an even speedier technology that just months ago the company insisted was not an urgent need.
The next-generation technology being used by Verizon, which can provide wireless downloads to a laptop between five and 10 times quicker than a dial-up connection over a wired telephone, will be rolled out nationally over the course of two years, with some cities getting the service by this summer.
In tandem with Thursday's wireless announcement, parent company Verizon Communications announced a $2 billion investment to accelerate the upgrade of its traditional wireline telephone network with Internet Protocol technology. The decision comes amid a scramble by top rivals to offer services using so-called "Voice over IP," or VoIP, a cost-cutting technology that converts the sound of phone conversations into digital packets just like e-mail and computer data.
Verizon also announced plans to launch products this year that integrate a person's assorted communication devices, enabling customers to centrally manage phone calls, voice mails, calendars, address books and e-mails.
Verizon Wireless, which is also part owned by Britain's Vodafone PLC, introduced a speedier cellular data service during September in two test markets, Washington and San Diego, but asserted that a wider rollout was not planned or necessary anytime soon.
That strategy may have changed with November's national launch by AT&T Wireless of a mobile network that enables laptop connections up to twice as fast as the cellular-based Internet access currently offered across most of the country by Verizon, Sprint PCS and Cingular Wireless.
Sprint, which uses the same wireless standard as Verizon, stood firm Thursday in its decision not to upgrade with the "EV-DO" version of the technology that Verizon has now decided to deploy nationally.
Because the technology doesn't improve call capacity and quality, "Sprint considers it to be an inefficient use of the spectrum when voice is still the primary and dominant driver of traffic on our wireless network," spokesman Charles Fleckenstein said. "Based on our current projections regarding wireless data market growth, Sprint ... is instead focused on the next release of technology beyond EV-DO," which the company expects to deploy in 2006.
AT&T Wireless, which spent $300 million to introduce its "EDGE" service in the fall, is already testing a more advanced technology called UMTS. The company expects to offer UMTS, which can provide comparable speeds to the service Verizon plans to roll out, in four cities including Seattle and San Francisco by the end of 2004.
For now, there's no plan to accelerate that rollout in response to the announcement by Verizon Wireless, said Ritch Blasi, spokesman for AT&T Wireless.
The arms race in mobile data comes as cellular companies grapple with new federal rules that took effect in late November allowing customers to switch wireless services without losing their phone numbers.
The improved wireless data services are most appealing to valuable business users. Notably, the faster laptop connections offered by AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless are priced at $80 per month for unlimited usage on top of the monthly charge for cell phone service.
But in addition to improving laptop connections, cellular companies hope snappier data services will finally make Web surfing on a phone or handheld computer appealing, boosting sales of multimedia handsets and driving new revenues from data usage.
The current generation of cellular data technologies, rolled out to customers last year, disappointed many users in terms of speed, offering downloads that rarely surpassed a telephone dial-up connection.
As a result, many cell phone companies have embraced Wi-Fi technology to deliver faster wireless connections in at least some locations, such as cafes and airport terminals, that business customers frequent.
But they have also pressed ahead with plans to deploy speedier service over their cellular networks, which offer the advantage of covering far more territory than the 300-foot range of a Wi-Fi signal.
The EV-DO service Verizon plans to launch is billed with average download speeds between 300 and 500 kilobits of data per second, almost on par with the wired broadband connections provided by DSL and cable TV. During off-peak network usage, the technology could provide speeds twenty to forty times faster than dialup, which has a maximum capacity of 56 kbps.
By contrast, the "1xRTT" technology that both Verizon and Sprint are now using nationally is capable of delivering speeds of up to 144 kbps. In practice, however, download speeds tend to average between 40 and 70 kbps, depending on the customer's location and the number of other subscribers using the network.
The laptop card required to access the EV-DO service, offered by Verizon at $150 after rebate, will also be compatible with the network in markets that have yet to be upgraded, so users will not need to carry two wireless cards.
I read about WI-FI in the 90's and knew it was the future.
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. UMTS is a future mobile communications system which, among other features, will offer direct connection between terminals and satellites. UMTS is one of the ITU's proposals for technologies for world standards for 3rd generation mobile communications (IMT-2000).And the last bit of meat extracted from the FCC's 8th annual report ties all these various term together and give a rough sense of real-world performance of each these various technologies:
2. Network Technology35. The four main digital technologies used in the United States are:
- Code Division Multiple Access ("CDMA"),
- Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM"),
- integrated Digital Enhanced Network ("iDEN"), and
- Time Division Multiple Access ("TDMA").
These four technologies are commonly referred to as Second Generation, or "2G," because they succeeded the first generation of analog cellular technology, Advanced Mobile Phone Systems ("AMPS"). As discussed in the Seventh Report, as a result of industry developments, this report no longer distinguishes between TDMA and GSM networks in its analysis of digital coverage, but considers the two as one migration path towards more advanced digital capabilities. We recognize that TDMA as currently deployed will continue to be used by millions of subscribers for a number of years.(130)
36.
Beyond the 2G digital technologies, mobile telephone carriers have been deploying nextgeneration network technologies (131) that allow them to offer mobile data services at higher data transfer speeds and, in some cases, increase voice capacity.
TDMA/GSM carriers are deploying General Packet Radio Service ("GPRS" or "GSM/GPRS"), a packet-based data-only network upgrade that allows for faster data rates by aggregating up to eight 14.4 kbps channels.(132)
GPRS's maximum data throughput rate is 115 kbps, but customers typically experience download speeds ranging from 30 to 60 kbps.(133)
After rolling out GPRS, most U.S. TDMA/GSM carriers plan to deploy Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution ("EDGE") and eventually Wideband CDMA ("WCDMA," also known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or "UMTS"). (134)
EDGE and WCDMA are expected to raise peak network speeds to 384-473 kbps and 2-2.4 Mbps, respectively. (135)
37.
Many CDMA carriers have been upgrading their networks to CDMA2000 1xRTT (also referred to as "CDMA2000 1X" or "1xRTT"), a technology that doubles voice capacity and allows maximum data throughput rates of 144 kbps. (136) Actual download speeds range from 30 to 70 kbps. (137)
The next step in the CDMA migration beyond 1xRTT is CDMA2000 1X EV-DO (evolution-data only, "EV-DO") or 1X EV-DV (evolution data and voice, "EV-DV"), which allow maximum data throughput speeds of 2.4 and 3.09 Mbps, (138) respectively, and actual speeds ranging from 300 to 700 kbps. (139)
Footnotes:
(131) For purposes of this report, all of the network technologies beyond 2G that carriers have deployed, as well as those that they plan to deploy in the future, are generally referred to as "next-generation network technologies."
The International Telecommunication Union ("ITU") has defined 3G network technologies as those that can offer maximum data transfer speeds of 2 megabits per second ("Mbps") from a fixed location, 384 kbps at pedestrian speeds, and 144 kbps at traveling speeds of 100 kilometers per hour. See Fifth Report, at 17695.
There is ambiguity among other industry players, however, as to which network technologies constitute 3G and which constitute interim technologies, often labeled "2.5G." See Seventh Report, at 13038. Therefore, the Eighth Report uses a more general label to describe all of the technologies beyond 2G.
(132) See Seventh Report, at 12990. This upgrade is also labeled GSM/GPRS because many TDMA/GSM carriers are upgrading their TDMA markets with GSM and GPRS simultaneously.
(133) Id., at 13042-13043. T-Mobile USA, Inc.
("T-Mobile") advertises GPRS speeds of 56 kbps but also reports that its average GPRS user gets speeds around 40 kbps.
AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. ("AT&T Wireless") reports that, during times of high usage, its GPRS users can download data at 20 to 30 kbps.
3G Americas states that GPRS"s average, customer-experienced throughput is 30 to 40 kbps. See T-Mobile, T-Mobile Internet Overview (visited Jan. 24, 2003) ; U.S. Carriers" New Wireless Networks Said to Barely Match Dial-Up Speeds, CTIA Daily News, Dec. 6, 2002 (citing ZDNET NEWS); 3G Americas LLC, NOI Comments, at 7 (filed Jan. 27, 2003) ("3G Americas Comments").
(137) Id., at 13042-13043. 3G Americas reports that 1xRTT's customer-experienced data rate is 30 to 70 kbps. 3G Americas Comments, at 7.
Sprint PCS reports its mobile data customers using its 1xRTT network get average speeds of 50-70 kbps. Sprint Corp., SEC Form 10-K, Mar. 7, 2003, at 4.
(138) See Seventh Report, at 12990; CDMA Development Group, Inc., NOI Comments, at 6 (filed Jan. 27, 2003) ("CDG Comments").
CDMA2000 1xEV-DV provides a simultaneous voice and data upgrade and allows maximum data transfer speeds of 3.09 Mbps. CDG Comments, at 6. (139) Monet Launches 1x EV-DO Service, News Release, Monet Mobile Networks, Nov. 4, 2002.
In the U.S., CDMA technology is dominant.Mmmm ... not quite correct.
If summing the number of subscribers from the top five carriers is any indication - TDMA/GSM is 'dominant':
Verizon Wireless 32,491 CDMA
Sprint PCS 14,760 CDMA
------
47,251 Total
Cingular Wireless 21,900 TDMA/GSM
AT&T Wireless 20,900 TDMA/GSM
T-Mobile 9,913 GSM
------
52,713 Total
Verizon, Sprint, and a handful of smaller carriers use it,True enough.
and Verizon is by far the dominant carrier in the U.S., followed by Nextel,True and false.
Nextel, for the end of 2002 showed to be #5 on the list (numbers in thousands):
Year-End 2001 Year-End 2002
- ------------------------ ------------------------
1 Verizon Wireless 29,398 Verizon Wireless 32,491 CDMA
2 Cingular Wireless 21,596 Cingular Wireless 21,900 TDMA/GSM
3 AT&T Wireless 18,047 AT&T Wireless 20,900 TDMA/GSM
4 Sprint PCS 13,555 Sprint PCS 14,760 CDMA
5 Nextel 8,667 Nextel 10,612 iDEN
6 VoiceStream 6,993 T-Mobile 9,913 GSM
The TDMA to GSM migrating carriers are behind these two.Not even close ... from the chart above it may be seen that Cingular is #2 with AT&T Wireless as #3.
Hmmm ... it will be just Europe (where GSM was originally developed and continues to be 'developed' with a migration path as previously detailed: GSM -> GPRS -> EDGE -> WCDMA/UMTS) and the US then ... and probably S. America. China, it seems, wishes to avoid any patent/royalty payments ...
I was told that Verizon and Cingular built their own cell systems from scratch, and that's why they have better connections than their competitors.
The only thing I can say definitively is that Cingular has far better signal strength than Sprint in southeast Texas.
Minor players compared to the top five or six (plus, these guys still have some analog in their systems) - and, this still puts Nextel *low* in the rankings -
- and, I didn't go into who covered more square miles either (that distnction will fall to the A and B band cellular carriers - not the PCS guys) ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.