Motorola Testing 4G Mobile Broadband In UK 61
CNETNate writes "Motorola has launched UK trials of the leading candidate for 4G mobile broadband technology, the long-term evolution (LTE) of 3G. The communications equipment maker began the trials at its testing facility in Swindon, UK on Monday. It plans to test out live LTE calls with data streaming, using a prototype LTE device and the 2.6GHz spectrum band that is due to be auctioned later this year. The news arrives after Motorola reported losses of $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008."
US Cell Phones (Score:0, Informative)
So, what, another 20 years before we see this in the US?
Re:It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:3, Informative)
The UK's cable is already fiber and has been since they started rolling out cable services, so stop spreading the last mile myth. The RSBs are a different matter, very old tech, which is a lot easier to replace when they bother. Coax is only used from these to your house, a matter of a few meters. The cabling is ready, NTL are already doing 50mbps on this so-called old tech. 20mbps is pretty common now, and that's over the same gear that was down at 512kbps eight years ago. DSL is still shit.
Re:It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think coax is used at all - phone lines are usually twisted pairs, or even just plain untwisted wires.
Try a data tariff and it's far cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
I'm Not sure where you get £4/MB from...
There are plenty of data tariffs from most of the networks now that give you 1GB/month for free which is generally more than enough for most on a mobile.
T-mobile for instance do it for like £5/month (and it's even free on some tariffs) which works out at £0.005/MB ish. Then of course there's the iPhone on O2.
Also you don't need to spend more to use 3G services, you are vastly ill-informed, either that or simply have no clue.
So though there certainly are tariffs which might cost £4/MB, you'd have to be an idiot to use them.
Re:It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:3, Informative)
The wire doesn't need changing for the most part, ignoring the fact the UK already has a decent amount of fibre already, even copper isn't really inherently any worse than radio for the range of data transfer we're talking about.
It's really the tech. in the local cabinets that needs changing but that isn't getting changed. BT is planning to take years and years to roll out ADSL2 (I think they're expecting completion by 2012 to 2014) yet the mobile operators have repeatedly managed to show they can upgrade to new tech. much faster when it comes out.
The only reason fibre is mentioned in reports about upgrading the UK's broadband infrastructure is because there's a strong belief it has much more long term potential, but that hasn't stopped live tests in some countries from demonstrating 100mbps and such over older copper connections.
The point is that if mobile operators were running the fixed line infrastructure as they do the mobile infrastructure you can guarantee they'd have this kit in already or within a few years at most, whilst BT wouldn't get something like that in until at least 2020 because first they'd have to finish off ADSL2 taking them to 2012, then they'd say the UK is fine now for at least 2 - 3 years, then they'd accept things need improving, this would be followed by a 2 year study and pushing for government subsidies, followed by 1 year of trials and then they'd spend the next 3 years rolling it out. This is how ADSL and ADSL Max rollouts were done and by the time ADSL2 is complete, it'll be almost the same for that too.
So yeah, it never ceases to amaze me...
Re:All for just 4 pounds sterling / megabyte (Score:3, Informative)
Pricing is not that bad. I am posting this from a mobile phone hooked up to my laptop. I pay £15 per month for a mobile with 200 minutes and 300 texts. I then pay £7.50 per month on top for unlimited data. This is pretty reasonable in my book.
I am currently on a train moving between London and Manchester at 100+ miles per hour and get the following:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/404516397.png [speedtest.net]
Ok, the ping is pretty bad but I cant complain about the price. I think they may cap my usage but I have never hit the cap so it does not make any practical difference. I have certainly used upwards of 2Gb in a month so it is fine for casual browsing. I have not tried bit torrent or any monster downloads but at least I do quite happily let windows update hammer my phone on patch Tuesday. I also quite happily browse on train journeys like this and not care about being charged.
I have even considered signing up to a dedicated mobile broadband account at £30 per month just for an internet dongle for the convenience and fact that they throw in a free laptop:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/get_connected_free_laptops/?int=home_nav [pcworld.co.uk]
All this seems pretty reasonable to me.
Roaming charges are a good point but I don't have time to go into that now, I am just about to arrive in Manchester :)
Re:All for just 4 pounds sterling / megabyte (Score:3, Informative)
But the roaming still applies unfortunately. The roaming charges for data in other European countries are outrageous.