Ben
8th September 2006, 12:57 AM
Well, I've been using my Vodafone 3G Broadband card for a little while now, but finding areas with '3G Broadband', aka HSDPA, the upgrade to 3G, can be a little difficult.
At the moment, however, I'm in a good 3G Broadband signal area so I can really get a taste of what the future holds for broadband without wires.
The wired broadband here is 512kbps ADSL. You'll be glad to hear that Vodafone 3G Broadband blows that out of the water. I'm able to download at 1.6Mbps and upload at over 300Kbps, speeds that are probably better than the majority of wired broadband users are getting in this country (even if they're only restricted to those speeds by price).
One small issue is latency. At about 100ms to www.google.co.uk it's not exactly going to be a gamers first choice just yet, but this is very respectable compared to the lag experienced on 3G until now that has been five or ten times this.
With '3G Broadband' speeds predicted to rapidly increase to 8Mbps over the next few years and beyond I think it's quite likely that many of us will, in the future, be sporting laptops that have this technology built-in, giving us internet access out-of-the-box wherever we may go. That is, of course, if the price of these services comes down.
Dell, Leveno and Asus (I think) already offer laptops with integrated Vodafone 3G Broadband. Sony have announced they'll bundle T-Mobile's version with some of their future laptops. It's an exciting twist for the mobile networks - who knows, they might one day be our main ISPs!
At the moment, however, I'm in a good 3G Broadband signal area so I can really get a taste of what the future holds for broadband without wires.
The wired broadband here is 512kbps ADSL. You'll be glad to hear that Vodafone 3G Broadband blows that out of the water. I'm able to download at 1.6Mbps and upload at over 300Kbps, speeds that are probably better than the majority of wired broadband users are getting in this country (even if they're only restricted to those speeds by price).
One small issue is latency. At about 100ms to www.google.co.uk it's not exactly going to be a gamers first choice just yet, but this is very respectable compared to the lag experienced on 3G until now that has been five or ten times this.
With '3G Broadband' speeds predicted to rapidly increase to 8Mbps over the next few years and beyond I think it's quite likely that many of us will, in the future, be sporting laptops that have this technology built-in, giving us internet access out-of-the-box wherever we may go. That is, of course, if the price of these services comes down.
Dell, Leveno and Asus (I think) already offer laptops with integrated Vodafone 3G Broadband. Sony have announced they'll bundle T-Mobile's version with some of their future laptops. It's an exciting twist for the mobile networks - who knows, they might one day be our main ISPs!