Voicestream Quietly Releases GPRS In The U.S. 141
hidden72 writes: "Voicestream quietly rolled out their iStream GPRS wireless data service in the United States last week. More information is available from Voicestream's website. General information about GPRS can be found here. Theoretically, GPRS data rates can reach close to 170k. Voicestream's per-packet charges are quite expensive, ($40 for 10MB) but it's an always-on 28k-56k data connection available in most metropolitan areas."
US GPRS expensive? (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem with GPRS is that the suppliers are likely to kill the market by charging too much and restricting the accessable sevices to a few WAP sites which the supplier has a relationship with (I'm told at least one telco in the UK does this, but I havn't checked it out).
SMS used to be a service that was hardly ever used due to expensive prices and a restriction to the suppliers network, alot of people didn't even know their phones could do it. As soon as the prices dropped and the telcos opened gateways to each other, the volumes exploded, now SMS' are a large part of the telcos' income.
GPRS is something that will be kept in the WAP bracket of niche user base until telcos finally realise that people will use it if they can afford it. Ironically GPRS will solve the main problem with WAP, speed.
Use a palm... (Score:2, Interesting)
A friend of got gprs and uses it to talk on icq in the train, bus, etc
He also uses it to read slashdot
Price (Score:2, Interesting)
Right now it's cheaper doing certain things in gprs.
Killer Apps? (Score:4, Interesting)
The truly useful applications will use the GPS location of your phone to give you location dependent services. What's the traffic like 1 mile up the road? Where's the nearest pub that serves Wadworth's 6X? Where's the nearest record store?
Perhaps the Yellow Pages is the killer app.
how much does progress cost? (Score:2, Interesting)
Motorola phone (that you probably didn't want) 169.99
PDA data plan (that you don't want because you have a Palm or linux on PDA) 19.99
Voice plan (that you don't want because you like the cell you have) 19.99
Compaq ipaq H3635 (because if you have to run WinCE... ) 499.99
Extra battery, mobile charger. (guess) 89.99
Comes out to: $799.95
So for almost a grand I can pretty much have my porno spam beamed straight to the metra train on the way to work... yeah I guess I could also pull down Slashdot as well so that I could keep current about glove input devices as well. True...
I think I am just gonna keep my ugly clumsy Palm VII
But the phone does come with a built in FM tuner. So maybe I am just being a bitch about the whole thing.
Invest in YOUR community (Score:1, Interesting)
Meanwhile, we're working hard to encourage folks to investigate/participate in, the brave gnu world of open/honest communications/commerce. We will be giving away, this distinctive set of URLs [opensourceworks.com], including a year's free hosting, as a result of someones' ability to follow simple directions.
So far, we note, A LOT of whining about the asphixiating behaviours of the felonious kingdumb of fud, but a dangerous lack of actual resolution to participate in the offering of alternatives. As far as we're concerned, fud is dead, but we hear that may not be totally true for everybuddy, yet.
cellular technology (Score:3, Interesting)
GSM is, and still isn't right for the United States for 2 reasons.
1) The European GSM standard uses 900MHz and 1800MHz. Those frequencies are used by the United States government, and have been long before GSM came around. So that's why GSM in the U.S. uses different frequencies. So any GSM phone that is, say 2 years old, won't work in Europe and vice versa.
2) Optimal cell size is a function of population density. Digital technologies, especially GSM, require smaller cell sizes. Simply put, places like Wyoming are not going to be getting digital anytime soon. But they do have analog because you can make those cells huge. GSM does not interoperate well with AMPS. CDMA IS-95 does. You can run a CDMA network and an AMPS network at 800MHz.
I also believe that CDMA is the future (not IS-95). Sure, UMTS is based on time-division, but the Docomo 3G call stack is CDMA-based.
So go buy your VoiceStream phone if you live in a big city. I live in Chicago. VoiceStream is there, but no way will I get a VoiceStream phone because if I ever go to Wisconsin, my phone will not get service. My Verizon CDMA phone gets service anywhere in the country.
Re:AT&T GSM (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:cellular technology (Score:2, Interesting)
Many carriers in the U.S. will evolve to CDMA2000, which can be regarded as a stepping stone to WCDMA as soon as they figure out the spectrum. Kind of like how GPRS is a stepping stone from GSM to UMTS.
How long as that nifty Ericsson phone been around? I'm sure its a great phone, but realize that carriers have to plan their networks years before all of these nifty phones come to market.
I'm not knocking GSM...its a great standard and Europe is very fortunate to have a nice uniform standard. It just wasn't right for the U.S. at the time (early 90's). I also like the SIM cards which are non-existant in IS-95.
Re:cellular technology (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, there are several tri-band mobiles out there, and Europe and Japan there aren't many people, who use a 2 year old mobile.
2)
Actually, UMTS uses for paired bands UTRA FDD with W-CDMA (Wide-Band Code Division Multiple Access) and for unpaired bands UTRA TDD with TD-CDMA (Time Division Code Division Multiple Access) is employed.
IRC, UTRA FDD is used for symmetrical circuit-switched services like voice and video-telephone, so generally you will use W-CDMA.
Here some further explanations [toronto.edu] to UMTS and GSM.
A GSM cell has a range up to 64km (e.g. coastal region) and normally up to 32km. Those are protocol related limitations. Usually cells are smaller due to surrounding buildings or mountains. But those physical limitations apply to any radio signal.
Can you tell me what is the typical cell range of a CDMA or a D-AMPS system?
UMTS cell sizes, and CDMA-networks in general, depend on the number of users as the signal to noise ratio increases with the number of users.
This is unevitable, since one users will be noise for to the other users, which is the prinicple of CDMA.
With up to 5 users you have a cell range of about 1.4km with 40 users the cell range is only 0.6km, with 42 users the cell range is 0.3km.
CDMA cells tend to "breathe".
The numbers are of no importance for CDMA in general, but the tendency is.
How do you plan coverage for breathing cells?
>Digital technologies, especially GSM, require smaller cell sizes
Please explain to me, what the causal relationship between cell-size and employing digital technologies is.
Re:cellular technology (Score:1, Interesting)
as the capacity grows, then the range reduces...