Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

The blog about mobile tech

Tag Archives: HSDPA

Mobile Phones – is 3G worth it?

I recently changed my mobile from a GSM only HTC Vox S710 to a HTC Touch Dual 3G mobile phone. The switch is a short term one as the switch was because the S710 was really beat up and scratched, and the Touch Dual was available at a steal of a price. It has given me however a chance to see if 3G on a phone is actually useful.

I hear you say, of course it is..  but right now I am edging towards the view that 3G for a phone is of little or no use except in the most extreme of instances. I am not talking about using the device as a modem for PC browsing, but whether the increased power usage and higher browsing speed are actually ok or not. To be honest for PC access over 3G, the best option is to get a 3G dongle or a laptop with the required radio already inbult – this allows you to use your phone and laptop at the same time, something I am always doing.

What I can say about the on-phone browsing and email download side of things, well I really do not notice the difference. With the email, I am reading small text messages and rarely open any attachments which explains it pretty much. With browsing, the performance is just simply not noticeably different – and I am talking about full screen browsing through the Opera Mini browser. Opera does a great job of compressing/caching the content so that operation over 2G is absolutely fine. The only place I saw a benefit for the speed is when I did have cause to open an attachment, but this is so rare as to not matter and we are talking about at most double the download time. I could see this difference being greater as I receive bigger attachments, but that just does not happen right now nor do I make use of it yet when running around. One special thought though is that I now have Qik video on the phone and that definitely does justify the speed of 3G, but using Qik I run directly into the other big problem of 3G phones – they suck power like it was going out of fashion.

I hear you say this must be the phone – after all it is a sucky Windows Mobile 6.1 device. Nope, I hear the same complaints from persons with other 3G phones such as the iPhone. Making use of the 3G service and the video on the device can really empty the battery purely because 3G phones require more processing power than the bog standard 2G phones.

So like many others who have moved to 3G, I now manage my life differently. I try not to be far away from a power source and recharge whenever I can. I am also eyeing up a spare battery or even the enhanced life version that makes the phone really thick. I am not however going to drop back to the 2G life – the video features are very nice, and that processor speed is also very nice in the OS giving the phone that nippy feature. It has however made me think twice about a non-replaceable battery phone like the iPhone, as charging is needed twice a day in real use because of my addiction to data access and push mail. I will just have to see what is available in August this year, when I feel I will need to upgrade again.

My thoughts however may be swayed if I do suffer too many battery out incidents.

What do you think of 3G phones?

WiFi or 3G – Which is best for the mobile worker?

There used to be a time when you would sit back in your hotel, and dig out how you could connect to their WiFi. This might be anything from a ramshackle collection of consumer WAPs connected back to an ADSL service, to something much classier which was the full Corporate option. You generally got something, and it was real pleasant – although certainly in Europe it was not generally free, and could cost upwards of £5 for 2 hours of usage, limited to 150MB during that time. This was shared with everyone around you and you had to either be very trusting (i.e. stupid) or employ encryption techniques for your access overlaid on their network.

We suffered but then came 3G and low cost tariffs that gave you 1GB or more limits at upwards of 350kbps. These limits have increased over time so now you have pretty much unlimited 3G connectivity for less than £30 per month. This access was their for you to use very much anywhere and certainly was very favourable considering that you only had to need to use the Internet for 12 hours a month to make it financially viable, and this is even lower cost now with today’s tariffs.

So what is the best recommendation for the mobile worker? Well unless you are working in the Outer Hebrides then it is 3G all the way, providing you with access whenever you want it, wherever you want it, with more security (no nasty people packet capturing next door) and (if you travel once a week or more) it is generally going to be cheaper.

You can also now spread the love locally if you are part of a team, by getting hold of one of the now many 3G WiFi Routers, that take your dongle or card and share it on a local WiFi network, great for setting up that temporary remote office. This is also condoned and encouraged now by companies like T-Mobile in the UK. So get out there and get yourself a 3G adapter and always make sure you can work (although as I have posted, not a great experience at 70mph on the London Midland Train line).

Planes, Trains and Automobiles – 3G Data on the move

Well maybe not planes right now, but certainly we need to talk about Trains and

Automobiles when it comes to using 3G data on the move. Well let me put it this way – unless you do not move it is simply one of the most frustrating exercises you can ever experience.

The issue is in the movement through the various coverage zones along your chosen route, whether this is on a train or in a car (obviously you are not driving). The 3G modem I use is the Huawei E220 that comes in various brandings in the UK. This is an HSDPA modem that can run up to 3.6Mbps (oh yes, I believe that one … not).

Now the general experience on the route is 3G…HSDPA… GPRS… no service… GPRS… 3G… no service… GPRS… HSDPA… 3G… HSDPA…no service. The other aspect of the experience is that on every transition, you have 30 seconds to 1 minute of nothing as the modem software tells you that you are connected but NO data actually transfers.

Now I do not believe that these are all coverage issues as this happens within the London M25 boundaries where 3G is pretty much 100%, there seems to be a real issue with the transitions between these different standards that kills the experience completely. Now I do not know whether this is totally to do with my E220 (I had another branded 3G modem that experienced something similar without the HSDPA transition which makes it unlikely) but this ‘roaming’ issue is something that is not experienced on voice calls.

There is hope however, as you can ‘minimise’ the issue by removing the optimisation out of the modem software – by setting it to one specific technology such as GPRS or 3G/HSDPA, although better results are experienced by setting it to purely GPRS. This makes it slower and harder to manage but it does deliver the most important characteristic of in-motion data – consistency.

Has anyone else got experience or hints and tips on how to improve the experience?