Category: Broadband

Will WiMax or LTE win out?

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EDGE, 3G and HSDPA are all very well, but what will the next jump in technology be for wireless internet? There are two competing technologies – WiMax and LTE. Which one is likely to win the race in the UK?

WiMax is based on Wi-Fi, and doesn’t require a SIM card for usage. Its benefits are that it’s an open standard – anyone can create the gear required to use the technology without paying license fees. That means the tech can be up to half as expensive as the equivalent LTE tech.

LTE, on the other hand, is based on the existing 3G network technology. In fact, LTE stands for “The Long Term Evolution of 3GPP”. Its advantages are that it’s well-understood by carriers, and when a device is out of range of an LTE signal, it can drop back to a 3G or 2G service. LTE’s currently a little faster, too, but that difference should be addressed by the ratification of a new WiMax standard later this year.

In the last year or so, Motorola’s been trialling an LTE service, but there are already commercial WiMax deployments out there. As a result, WiMax has an early lead. But given how entrenched many operators are in their love of 3GPP networks, we’ll soon be seeing more of that. In fact, Motorola’s already testing an LTE network.

What’s eventually likely to happen, however, is that laptops and netbooks will rely on WiMax (thanks to lower prices and enhanced compatibility) and LTE will take hold on mobile devices, just because it’s easier for operators to continue working how they do now.

So I reckon it’ll be a draw, and both technologies will have their own places in the next 5-10 years. Bit of a cop-out, perhaps, but there you go. What’s your opinion? Drop us a tweet at @techdigest letting us know exactly how wrong we are.

Duncan Geere Broadband, Wi-Fi

3 offers 15GB of data per month for £15

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With most mobile service providers given up on trying to con us over the price of a text message, I’d thought it was data they were trying to do us for now. That was before I saw this deal from 3 offering 15GB per month for just £15, and at a pound per GB that makes it the best mobile broadband package…

Daniel Sung Broadband

22% of the UK don't want your fancy high-speed internet

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I remember when broadband first became available in the UK. I begged my parents to upgrade our slow, slow AOL dial-up internet access, so I could download bigger files and actually be competitive in online games (it was some years later when I discovered my poor performance was not solely attached to my slow connection). No avail, they were happy with AOL, which is a sentence you don’t see very often these days.

Regardless, they have (or had, rather – they got broadband pretty sharpish as soon as I’d left for university) quite a lot in common with 24% of the UK, who also don’t see the point in this high speed internet malarkey. That’s according to OFCOM’s CEO Ed Richards, who made the claim in a speech to the London School of Economics.

TechDigest writer Broadband, Computers

Plusnet offering broadband completely without limits

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Many broadband suppliers claim that they offer completely unlimited broadband, but when you dig down into the terms and conditions, you find that there’s actually some rather severe limits. If you pass them, then you’ll find your connection suddenly throttled to within an inch of its life.

Plusnet claims to be different. There’s no caps, no ‘fair usage limits’ and although they employ traffic shaping products, they’re completely open about what they shape and when they shape it. Here’s their chart:

Plusnet Unlimited expected maximum downstream speeds
2am to 12pm
12pm to 2pm
2pm to 4pm
4pm to 6pm
6pm to 8pm
8pm to 10pm
10pm to 11pm
11pm to 12am
12am to 2am
Peer-to-Peer
Line speed
512Kbps
256Kbps
164Kbps
128Kbps
128Kbps
256Kbps
512Kbps
Line speed
Binary USENET
Line speed
512Kbps
256Kbps
164Kbps
128Kbps
128Kbps
256Kbps
512Kbps
Line speed
External FTP
Line speed
512Kbps
256Kbps
256Kbps
256Kbps
164Kbps
256Kbps
512Kbps
Line speed
VPN
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
Download sites
Line speed
1Mbps
1Mbps
512Kbps
256Kbps
256Kbps
256Kbps
512Kbps
Line speed
Download servers
Line speed
2Mbps
2Mbps
1Mbps
756Kbps
512Kbps
756Kbps
1Mbps
Line speed
Gaming*
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps
2Mbps

Basically, as long as you’re not torrenting at peak times, you’ll not notice any problems, and gamers will squeal with delight at the promised 2Mbps downstream all day every day, even at peak times. VPNers get the same.

It’ll cost you a rather low £12 a month, for a 8Mb unlimited service. There’s also a ‘value’ package with a 10GB usage allowance for £6 a month, and if you’re a power user, then you can get no traffic shaping at all with the Pro service for £20 a month.

The pro service is a little complicated – it will prioritise your traffic above everything else, BUT you only have a 15GB a month usage allowance, BUT you get to download as much as you like between midnight and 8am. So essentially, you schedule your big downloads for then.

A small round of applause for Plusnet please, ladies and gentlemen, for being honest and transparent about what they do with your connection. Particularly in so much detail. If only all broadband suppliers could be as open with their customers.

Duncan Geere Broadband

Motorola picks Swindon to test out 4G

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Motorola is testing 4G, also known as LTE – the Long-Term Evolution of 3G, at its lab in Swindon. The trials are using 2.6GHz spectrum, just above the range used by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (2.4GHz).

4G is competing with WiMax to replace 3G as the communications standard for the next generation of mobile phones. Vodafone’s also testing a 4G service, but it’s unlikely that consumers will start seeing this technology for at least a few years.

(via Computer Weekly)

Duncan Geere Broadband, Mobile phones

Orange adds HP Compaq Mini 700 and Toshiba L300 to its 'connected' product line

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Since November, Orange has been offering the Eee PC 901, complete with a 3G module, for £25 a month on a two-year contract. It’s an interesting blend of the mobile phone and PC business models, and has presumably proved successful, because the company is rolling out more laptops.

The HP Compaq Mini 700 and the Toshiba L300 have been added to the available range. You’ll get the former for £30 a month, and the latter for £35. They both come with the ‘internet everywhere’ service – meaning ‘everywhere you can get a phone signal’, anyway. That gives 3GB of monthly data allowance – not a great deal for heavy users.

Duncan Geere Broadband, Computers, Laptops / Notebooks

Koreans to get ultra-fast broadband – 1Gb/s by 2012

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In contrast to our Government’s pledge for 2Mb/s broadband for all by 2012, South Korea’s government is promising 1Gb/s! At present, they’ve got 100Mb/s pipes, and as a result their digital culture is more advanced that almost any other nation on the planet.

As well as a wired speed increase, their wireless broadband will be going up to 10Mbps, using Korea’s own WiBro standard. The whole plan will cost the country $24.6bn (£17bn) and generate 120,000 jobs. Now if they can do it, why can’t we?

(via GigaOM)

Related posts: Digital Britain | Samsung launches their high end Yepp YP-P3 in Korea

Duncan Geere Broadband

Digital Britain report: a summary

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So, the Government has just released its Digital Britain green paper. It discusses a number of
different things that the government wants to do for the future of Britain’s digital industry, ranging from telecoms, through radio, television, broadband and, as we discussed this morning, intellectual property.

It’s an interesting read. There’s some positive aspects, and some negative ones. Some bits of the report are very ambitious, but others show no ambition at all. I’ll go through each sector in order over the break.

Duncan Geere Broadband, Computers, Intellectual Property, Mobile phones