Wireless Broadband: HSDPA and WiMax

My cell phone contract is up next year, and though it's still a few months away, I've been looking at phones and services.

I'm currently a Cingular customer, and when I upgrade, I was thinking of getting a phone that can double as a modem for my laptop. Thinking Cingular only offered their GPRS/EDGE network with 70-110k speeds, switching to Sprint and getting an EVDO capable phone was attractive.

But then I learned about HSDPA.

HSDPA stands for High Speed Data Packet Access and is a newer specification for 3G data services. While Cingular's HSDPA network is only offering speeds comparable to EVDO right now (average 400-700k), the literature I've read says HSDPA is capable of getting up to 550-1050k with lower latency (sub 100 milliseconds).

That said, according to this list of phones that work with their Cingular Connection Manager software to allow tethering your phone to your laptop as a modem, only two of the phones they offer are both HSDPA capable and PAM (Phone As Modem) capable.

I don't know how often they update that list, though. They just started offering the Samsung Blackjack, which they advertise as HSDPA, and I believe may also be PAM capable.

The sad thing about the list though is the absence of any of their Blackberry or Palm PDA phones.

It seems that Cingular's HSDPA rollout, while mentioned in press releases, is not getting a full court press right now because of two factors.

1. They've only rolled it out in a fraction of their coverage area and they're waiting until it reaches a greater saturation level before they start making real noise.

2. Because it's relatively new, the number of phones, PDAs, and laptop cards that support it is still pretty small. They're also waiting until they have a broader range of HSDPA enabled devices available before they give it a full-court press.

IMO, EVDO is still ruling the wireless broadband roost, but HSDPA could be seriously nipping at its heels in the next year or two.

But What About WiMax?

Recently, on a billboard near my house and a stand at my local shopping mall, ClearWire has started promoting its WiMax-based wireless internet service. Based on the WiMax standard and operating in protected frequency bands around the 2.5 GHz level, they're offering a 1.5 Megabit down / 256 Kilobit up service that prices out comparably with "unlimited" cellular broadband services.

On top of this, if you go with their business plan, you can even get a dedicated IP address.

Upsides are:

• Faster speeds than current cellular-based services.
• Fewer hidden restrictions on how much usage you're allowed. Because the cellular data plans are intended as stopgaps for road usage, excessive usage, even under an "unlimited plan" can get you cancelled or charged overages (there are lots of horror stories about this if you care to hunt them down). But, since this is meant to be used for home and business connectivity, a much greater level of usage is expected and allowed.
• The speed is fast enough to handle VOIP.

Downsides are:

• Based on their installation demo video and their literature, the service requires a modem/router that is as big as most cable modems and has a nice, clunky power brick. That means service is limited to locations where you can plug in the power brick, thus it's not a good mobile broadband option.
• Because they're newer, their coverage areas are significantly smaller than cellular coverage areas.
• At least for now, you're going to find more dead and slow spots in a coverage area than you might with cellular.
• While the speed is good enough for VOIP, there's the question of latency due to the wirelsss connection method and the distances, so your mileage might vary significantly depending on how close to the transmitter you were and what was between you and the transmitter.

Still, like HSDPA, I see this technology becoming more formidable in the next couple of years. WiMax has a greater capacity than 1.5/256. They're likely capping it to provide greater quality of service as they roll-out. Once they've reached a certain saturation point, I could see them running back through existing areas and beefing up the number and strength of transmitters so they could offer greater speeds and lower latency.

Second, just like they've been coming out with WiFi VOIP phones that contain all the hardware needed to connect to a wireless hotspot (be it your home router or hotspots in airports, hotels, and coffee shops), if WiMax achieves sufficient penetration, a WiMax VOIP phone would not be out of the question. Containing all the hardware necessary, it could substitute for a cell phone in WiMax coverage areas and connect via bluetooth or a USB cable to your laptop to provide high-speed data access.

So What Do I Do Now?

For the time being, if you need the best combo of speed, coverage area, and connection options, EVDO is king. But if you're still locked into a contract and won't be upgrading your phone/plan until mid-2007, I'd say to give Cingular a call at that time and see where they are with HSDPA.

As for WiMax options like ClearWire... If they can increase coverage and boost speeds, then bring out an all-in-one handset (VOIP, tethered modem for your laptop via USB or bluetooth, free instant messenger via Yahoo/AIM/MSN using the broadband connection instead of SMS), they could be the killer app of 2008.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Gadgets & Gizmos, Techno Thoughts.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.