discuss article: Gobbledy**** Demystified

Overthrow · 09/19/2006, 11:32 AM

UMTS? HSDPA? GSM? OMG? LOL? Tired of meaningless acronyms? Today we delve into them to help you find out what they mean!

Gobbledy**** Demystified!

Hanuman · 09/19/2006, 11:54 AM

Great article! I've always had a general idea, but now I've got a much clearer explanation! Thanks for putting this together in such an easy way to understand.

JonStern · 09/19/2006, 01:49 PM

Great article. Found it really useful. Thanks.

Overthrow · 09/19/2006, 02:44 PM

I'm glad to hear that it helped you both out --

stuartr · 09/19/2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Overthrow

UMTS? HSDPA? GSM? OMG? LOL? Tired of meaningless acronyms? Today we delve into them to help you find out what they mean!

Gobbledy**** Demystified!

Well done!

RawsonDR · 09/19/2006, 10:29 PM

Good article. A lot of people will be able to reference to it whenever these questions are asked.

With regard to your numbers for EDGE, 1xRTT and GPRS, though, I've always understood 1xRTT to be more on par with EDGE than with GPRS. There was a blatant contrast in the Treo 600 days. From what I remember, 56k might be a high average for GPRS while it's a low average for 1xRTT. The chart value of 180 kbs seems more like a max realistic value, from what I've gathered it might average just a bit above 1xRTT.

morrie · 09/19/2006, 11:16 PM

thank you, the article was a great help to an old fart like me.

nptski · 09/20/2006, 01:32 AM

700P Vzn pretty pitiful speeds 155kps on speed test...

LouisW · 09/20/2006, 06:55 AM

HSDPA (3.5G) is again much faster than UMTS, and it's been rolled out already in a few small areas of the world. The standard supports about 14700kbps, though what users get will vary by carrier. Very few smartphones support HSDPA yet.

HSPDA has been rolled out in parts of Continental Europe and the UK. T-mobile in the UK has the network running. I am using with an MDA Vario II (Hermes Tytn) variant. The speed is very fast.

HobbesIsReal · 09/20/2006, 11:55 AM

Great article!

VZ has announced their Rev Plans. Sprint will be rolling out Rev A to several major metro areas by the end of the year, has several Rev A cards available now with two new Rev A phone coming soon, the 5800 and the PPC-6800. Does the EVDO section include speeds with Rev A or just Rev 0?

Convert · 09/20/2006, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nptski

700P Vzn pretty pitiful speeds 155kps on speed test...

even slower on Cingular Treo 650 - 49kbs on speed test

Overthrow · 09/20/2006, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RawsonDR

Good article. A lot of people will be able to reference to it whenever these questions are asked.

With regard to your numbers for EDGE, 1xRTT and GPRS, though, I've always understood 1xRTT to be more on par with EDGE than with GPRS. There was a blatant contrast in the Treo 600 days. From what I remember, 56k might be a high average for GPRS while it's a low average for 1xRTT. The chart value of 180 kbs seems more like a max realistic value, from what I've gathered it might average just a bit above 1xRTT.

I'll agree that a # of 56 kbps is basically unkind to 1xRTT; the reason that 56k is listed as a comparable is that 1x is the slowest internet available on CDMA. So, 1x unfortunately gets compared to what our audience knows by comparison: 56k analog dialup.

I'd rather compare GPRS and 1xRTT to single and double channel ISDN lines respectively, though that unfortunately would not be a useful comparison for the intended audience. ;P

With regards to GPRS and 56k, that depends on what class of GPRS the device supports. Class 10-12 GPRS devices are capable of up to 80kbps, and again, digital instead of compressed analog. Again, not stuff I could say without causing some glazing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LouisW

HSDPA (3.5G) is again much faster than UMTS, and it's been rolled out already in a few small areas of the world. The standard supports about 14700kbps, though what users get will vary by carrier. Very few smartphones support HSDPA yet.

HSPDA has been rolled out in parts of Continental Europe and the UK. T-mobile in the UK has the network running. I am using with an MDA Vario II (Hermes Tytn) variant. The speed is very fast.

Rest assured, I am very, very jealous. The fastest on the GSM side that my market supports is EDGE, and T-Mobile US *only now* purchased the spectrum for their 3G network. Sigh. Cingular hasn't put 3G in our area yet either, so they're no better.

Also, the newer HTC smartphones have some sick specs! I'm especially curious about BT 2.0 on their 3600, which MS and Palm claim WM05 does not support.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HobbesIsReal

Great article!

VZ has announced their Rev Plans. Sprint will be rolling out Rev A to several major metro areas by the end of the year, has several Rev A cards available now with two new Rev A phone coming soon, the 5800 and the PPC-6800. Does the EVDO section include speeds with Rev A or just Rev 0?

The article is about Rev 0 -- I figured going into that much detail would cause glazing. Rev A will bump up the max speeds by about 500kbps, drastically increase the upload speed, and should give a jump of around 200kbps to the real world figures mentioned.

Gekko · 09/20/2006, 07:44 PM

why does my friend's Verizon EVDO 700w seem not much faster than my Sprint 650 when browsing the internet on the phone? Seems like the same slow experience even though he has EVDO.

samkim · 09/22/2006, 01:02 AM

Great article.

What did this mean (in reference to CDMA)?

Quote:

Globetrotters, fear not, your pain will be lessened in the next 5 years or so.

Thanks.

Dr Buzz0 · 09/22/2006, 11:43 AM

Does anyone know what sort of timeline Cingular has for rolling out the HSDPA service?

As of right now, if you want high speed mobile data, EVDO is the way to go. Verizon already has a big headstart and has all the major cities and a good portion of the 'burbs and the highways covered. They have my area covered and I'm in backwater Connecticut, about 20 miles from new haven. Sprint is rolling it out at a decent pace as well.

Cingular's coverage with HSDPA (right now) pretty limited. They only have a few markets currently up and running and the coverage is limited to handful of small geographic markets. (they have a few cities covered, but mostly only to the city limits).

However, I have heard that they have big plans to light up a good chunk of the rest of the country soon. Actually, I saw some guys working at a cell tower this summer, just outside a resteraunt I frequent. When they came in for a coffee, I asked them what was up and they said they said they were on contract with cingular for maintance and upgrade and mentioned that cingular is in the process of updating the hardware in many towers for highspeed service. (although that tower they were only visiting for routine maintiance)