3G goes live in the UK

[Beano500]

The UK's first mainland third generation mobile network is officially opening for business, enabling callers to see each other and send video footage via their phones.

Full story at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2808761.stm and plenty of links - although Patricia Hewitt's beaming fizzog does not strike me as the best of adverts.....

Any PHers that are going to be first in the queue for this - what would you see the real benefit being?

[plipton]

If it's anything like the BT broadband roll-out then you'll have a long wait until you can use it anywhere outside London etc.

TBH, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Distance from base stations increases and data rate decreases. More people on a cell - data rate decreases. And so far there are not many useful applications for all this fast data.

I hate to sound negative, but I'll wait a while longer (and I don't even have to pay for it - see profile)

PS. Hutchison - remember "Rabbit"??

>> Edited by plipton on Monday 3rd March 12:18

[plotloss]

Even then it wont do video properly, you will have to wait for OFDM for that...

Matt.

[GregE240]

Hutchison - yes, I remmeber Rabbit.

But...they are also the people behind "The future's bright, the future's Orange" so they're not all bad.

PS: your comments re data rates per cell are exactly the same as what you get on an ADSL enabled telephone exchange.

[Beano500]

i.e. the dreaded contention which can easily reduce transfer rates below good old fashioned steam powered 56k modems.....

[judas]

Damn - and I've just bought an Orange SPV. Still, it's pretty neat and will do until 3G gets its act together and phones come out at sensible prices (the SPV cost me £15 ). And there's only partial coverage around my village.

[Beano500]

judas said: Damn - and I've just bought an Orange SPV. Still, it's pretty neat and will do until 3G gets its act together and phones come out at sensible prices (the SPV cost me £15 ). And there's only partial coverage around my village.

Mm - thought that looked a bit funky. How come fifteen notes? Does it still work..... after falling of the back of something?

[plipton]

GregE240 said: Hutchison - yes, I remmeber Rabbit.

But...they are also the people behind "The future's bright, the future's Orange" so they're not all bad.

PS: your comments re data rates per cell are exactly the same as what you get on an ADSL enabled telephone exchange.

Orange-Hutchison. I don't know if they are linked.

ADSL and 3G - similar Idea (although 3G is technically more like CDMA).

I suppose the word "contention" kinda sums it up fairly well, although with 3G the distance you are from a base station affects data transfer rate too.

[Beano500]

...and ADSL doesn't work beyond 5.5 km of the exchange IIRC?

How does CDMA data transfer rate deteriorate with distance then?

[plipton]

Beano500 said: ...and ADSL doesn't work beyond 5.5 km of the exchange IIRC?

How does CDMA data transfer rate deteriorate with distance then?

ADSL - should be ok up to 5 miles or so (that's what our ISP boys tell me, anyway. It gets slower after that)

CDMA - not my area but have been told this on a CDMA/3G overview. Maybe down to error rate and repeat data send, phase shift due to distance (return signal delay) etc.??

[Tony Hall]

Does this mean the MM02 shares I got stuck with will be worth something now?
I had an Orange BMW once that was bright but it wasn't in the future..
What am I talking about...

[judas]

Beano500 said:Mm - thought that looked a bit funky. How come fifteen notes? Does it still work..... after falling of the back of something?

You can haggle for anything these days Found them going for £19.99 on www.mobileshop.co.uk (on a Talk 200 contract) so I went into Tomo in Nottingham and told them I wanted the same deal. They ummed and ahhed and said they cound do it for £49. Not good enough I said, so they had a little huddle with the manager and they came back saying they could match the offer. It was so good I went back to get another with the missus a few days later and they did it for £15! A mate picked up one of the new Ericsson P800 PDA/phones for £130 from the same place. Makes you wonder how they make any money at all.

[Pookie]

Have you looked at the phones? Is it just me but how can you video conference when the camera is on the opposite side of the phone to the screen on the NEC handsets? So you can either watch you friend/colleague or film yourself. Or is it just me that thinks it would be a good idea to be able to do both? At least Motorola have got it right.

[Plipton]

Whoa - don't get carried away. Coverage for video ain't great yet. Click this link and then select "coverage checker"

www.hutchison3g.com/index.omp

[rich-uk]

plipton said:

Orange-Hutchison. I don't know if they are linked.

It was started by Huchinson, but brought by France Telecom a couple of years ago.

[DennisTheMenace]

Didnt vodafone buy orange at one time and got told to sell em on ????

>> Edited by DennisTheMenace on Tuesday 4th March 23:40