These questions and more - answered!
Where is mobile broadband available?
How much does mobile broadband it cost and how is it billed?
What are the advantages of mobile broadband?
Where is mobile broadband available?
Currently, you can choose from a number of different providers in major cities. In more remote or rural areas, coverage will be patchy. Telstra claims that their Next G service is available nearly everywhere their CDMA phone service is, but take this with a grain of salt. In some areas Next G will be accessible, but so slow that it’s unusable. In 2007, Australian mobile broadband is really only reliable inside metro city areas. If you’re going to be relying on it, try and arrange a free trial of the service so you can test it in your desired area of use. That way, if you’re living in a black spot, you’ll know before you commit any money.
How much does mobile broadband it cost and how is it billed?
Mobile broadband is generally billed by the megabyte, making it one of the most expensive forms of broadband, especially for high volume users.
What are the advantages of mobile broadband?
For light email and web business use, mobile broadband is brilliant. It’s also easily fast enough for online games these days.
What are the drawbacks of mobile broadband?
It’s not a good choice for bit-torrent aficionados, due to the billing per megabyte. It’s also not the greatest platform for VoIP programs like Skype, as quite a few packets are lost into the atmosphere.
Who is the best provider for mobile broadband?
See PC Authority’s mobile broadband feature to see who scored the best results in our 2007 testing. (link)
What is the best modem or transmitter for mobile broadband?
This depends on your situation. Probably the most convenient is a fully integrated chip in a notebook computer, which is concealed inside the computer’s casing. However, this might require buying an entire computer. PC card solutions have excellent performance and are the next best thing, fitting snugly into the computer’s PC card slot. Finally, USB modems have equally good performance but the way they dangle off the body of the computer can be irritating. On the upside, they can be easily connected to desktop computers as well as notebooks.
Can I use a smartphone to access 3G mobile broadband?
The answer is yes, but you will of course have to live with the smartphone’s limitations. Most smartphones have cramped web browsers, cut-down email applications and “pocket” versions of real computer applications, which you could be running full screen, at full steam on a notebook computer under Windows.
What do the mobile broadband acronyms mean?
HDSPA
High Speed Downlink Packet Access; a form of high-speed data connection for mobile devices using traditional phone networks such as GSM.
GPRS
General Packet Radio Service; a technology for sending data over GSM mobile phone networks. Early versions of the GPRS technology are inferior to the performance of the more recent HSDPA.
UMTS
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
A 3G mobile telecommunications system for data transfer.
3G
Third Generation; refers to recent mobile phone systems that have fast data capabilities.
2.5G
Two-point five Generation; refers to older mobile phone technology which had limited data capabilities, such as GPRS, which has similar performance to dial-up.
EDGE
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution; a relatively slow standard for data transmission over telecommunications networks. Superseded by HSDPA.
EVDO, or EV-DO
Evolution Data Optimised, a telecommunications standard for data transmission. EVDO is faster than EDGE, but both are slower than HSDPA.
CDMA
Code Division Multiple Access; a form of wireless signal handling, commonly used in mobile phone networks.
GSM
Global System for Mobile communications; a mobile phone system used extensively in Europe and Australia since the 1990s.