How is mobile broadband different to Wi-Fi?
What is WiMAX?
What are the alternatives to 3G mobile broadband?
What do the mobile broadband acronyms mean?
* How does mobile broadband work?
Most mobile broadband available in Australia is based on 3G technology. This is the mobile phone system that allows streaming video, email and advanced data services on handsets. Due to recent upgrades, this same system is now being used to provide personal computers with a high-speed Internet connection. The vendors are nearly all mobile phone telecommunications companies, such as Telstra and Vodafone. The devices that allow you to connect to the service are most commonly PC card devices for notebook computers, or USB modems.
* How is mobile broadband different to Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi is a short range system, designed for use in the home, that can reach around 100 metres from the base station, using a “free” unlicenced part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is suitable for use at wireless “hotspots” covering a café, or a small business installation. Wi-Fi is based on the IEEE standard 802.11g. On the other hand mobile broadband based on 3G, is a long range system, covering distances of ten kilometres or more, using a licenced part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is generally reserved for mobile phone usage. This is suitable for single users who are highly mobile, perhaps moving at high speed in a train or bus.
* What is WiMAX?
WiMAX, an emerging standard for long-range data transmission that is a competing technology to 3G. The vision of WiMAX is to provide a cheap mobile broadband service with the convenience of Wi-Fi. The Australian wireless operator UnWired uses a form of WiMAX-based technology for their metropolitan service in Australia, which only covers major cities. WiMAX as a public utility faces challenges in securing spectrum licenses around the world, especially where 3G telecommunications companies are already operating. WiMAX has a number of high-profile backers including Intel corporation, who has rolled WiMAX out in some rural parts of third world countries.
* What are the alternatives to 3G mobile broadband?
3G mobile broadband is a unique new technology which really doesn’t have many peers. It may be challenged by WiMAX in the future, but for the time being, there really isn’t a competing technology which has its performance and its relatively low cost. Satellite access systems may work in more places on Earth, but these are extremely expensive to operate and may not be ideal when you are in transit.
Some people who mostly live and travel in densely populated city areas make a rather cheeky effort to access the Internet on the run by scanning for Wi-Fi hotspots wherever they go. There is an expanding number of Wi-Fi hotspots, but you couldn’t seriously guarantee that an unsecured one would be in range when you most needed it for a time-critical business activity. For this reason, a serious businessperson would invest in mobile broadband for its “always on” reliability.
What do the mobile broadband acronyms mean?
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.
CDMA
Code Division Multiple Access; a form of wireless signal handling, commonly used in mobile phone networks.
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.
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.
GSM
Global System for Mobile communications; a mobile phone system used extensively in Europe and Australia since the 1990s.
HDSPA
High Speed Downlink Packet Access; a form of high-speed data connection for mobile devices using traditional phone networks such as GSM.