Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'Mobile broadband'

Optus launches new mobile broadband service (Australia)

  • August 28th, 2008
  • 7:49 am

Optus launched a brand new mobile broadband service which will be speed-shaped once the data quota has been reached, instead of charging excess.

“Today’s consumers want the freedom to be online at any time and the existing mobile broadband pricing packages have potential risk for excessive and unexpected download charges, often amounting to several hundred dollars in a month,” Primus CEO Ravi Bhatia said in a statement.

Once the subscriber reaches the monthly data allowance, the connection would be rate shaped for the remainder of the monthly billing period to 64Kbps.

Practical speeds for the service will be 384Kbps to 3.6Mbps for HSDPA devices, 200Kbps to 384Kbps for 3G and 20Kbps to 40Kbps for 2G. Primus will be offering 6GB for $39.95 per month with a free modem on a 24-month contract as a special offer for September.

The other tariffs are, $29.95 for 1GB, or $19.95 bundled with a mobile and $79.95 for 12GB, or $69.95 with a mobile.

If the subscribers want additional data, they can buy it using their account toolbox.

The service will be provided using the Huawei E220 modem, which runs on 2,100MHz.

Although Optus also uses the 900MHz spectrum for parts of its network.

Aircell gets the American Airlines passengers Gogo (USA)

  • August 21st, 2008
  • 11:47 am

American Airlines and Aircell together have launched a new mobile broadband service Gogo. Customers flying from American Airlines’ Boeing 767-200 aircraft will now be able to access the internet on flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami.
The Gogo service will be available for USD 12.95 on flights of more than three hours and for every paid session. Mobile phone and VoIP services are not available. The service will enable American Airlines passengers to surf the web, check emails, access IM, or a corporate VPN.
Additionally, once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet, the passengers can turn on their Wi-Fi enabled devices s open their browsers and be directed to the Gogo portal page where they have to sign up and start surfing.

   

3 to double the mobile broadband speed to 7.2 mbps (UK)

  • August 12th, 2008
  • 8:01 am

3, mobile network operator, is planning to double it’s mobile broadband speed to 7.2 mbps over the summer.

Currently, the network offers 3.6 mbps, which in real terms is about 1 mbps.

The company, according to the spokesperson from the service provider, is working to upgrade to 14.4 mbps and increasing capacity in order serve more users.

   

iPhone 3G in Estonia by Teliasonera

  • August 11th, 2008
  • 11:45 am

TeliaSonera and EMT proclaimed that they will bring iPhone 3G to Estonia this August.

Features of iPhone 3G:

  • IPhone 3G combines all the features of iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast
  • Built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services
  • iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third party applications available through the new App Store.

“The launch of iPhone 3G represents another strategic step for us in the development of the mobile broadband market and strengthens our position in the Nordic and Baltic region,” said Kenneth Karlberg, President, business area mobility service, TeliaSonera. “With iPhone 3G, we offer our customers an amazing new way to meet their demands for access, speed and mobility,” he added.

Virgin Media offers mobile broadband dongles on T-Mobile tariff cuts (UK)

  • August 8th, 2008
  • 7:20 am

Virgin Media is planning to begin offering mobile broadband dongles in the UK in Q4′08. The offering comes after Virgin Media Struck an agreement with T-Mobile, MVNO,  to reduce the wholesale rates it pays for voice and data, retroactive to January and April. The mobile data tariffs will also be lowered accordingly. Virgin is also testing 100Mbps cable broadband in England, has also commited to introduce 50Mbps in the second half of the year.

   

High data roaming prices stifling market (Europe)

  • July 25th, 2008
  • 2:19 pm

Mobile operator announces milestone in Europe which calls for regulatory interventions on roaming rates. According to mobile oprator 3 it has signed up 1 million broadband customers in Europe. There is a high demand for mobile broadband, with the customers using it to both supplement and replace their fixed connections, the operator said. But it is too expensive for customers to use abroad.

“Typical retail roaming prices are literally hundreds of times what customers expect to pay domestically. A European consumer might pay around one euro cent per megabyte at home, yet pay a premium of 360 times that simply to cross a border,” said Christian Salbaing, managing director European Telecoms at Hutchison Whampoa, 3’s parent company.

But while 3 has long called for regulatory intervention in the market, not everyone agrees. “Markets, not politicians, set prices,” Tom Phillips, chief of government and regulatory affairs  said, adding that while most other industries have experienced annual price inflation, the mobile sector repeatedly shows price declines.

Salbaing however insists that, “the difference between domestic and roaming data rates is far greater than with voice, only wholesale action can put an end to charges that are sometimes hundreds of times greater than our customers pay at home.”

Mobile broadband popularity rocks in Europe

  • July 7th, 2007
  • 10:29 am

Europe will have five million mobile broadband connections by the end of this year, a Swedish analyst firm has predicted.

The countries where people are signing up most quickly to HSDPA (high-speed 3G) services are Austria and Sweden. Overall, the firm predicts, the continent’s mobile broadband connections will have shot up to 30 million by 2011.

The availability of HSDPA — a technology which can deliver a download speed of up to 7Mbps — has coincided with falling prices for mobile internet access, boosting the popularity of the connection method. “Mobile operators like 3, A1 Mobilkom and Telenor are getting this right,” said senior analyst Tobias Ryberg last week. “Ordinary people have already replaced their old bulky desktop PC with a new, slim, widescreen notebook. Now, thanks to [HSDPA], they can also connect to the internet anywhere for just €20 (£13.50) per month.”

Berg Insight predicted that the European broadband market will be worth €3bn (£2bn) in five years’ time, compared with the €1.1bn (£742m) worth of devices and services last year. The analyst firm also suggested that the introduction of HSPA+ in 2009 — a further evolution of 3G which will see download speeds increase to 28.8Mbps — will further diminish the need for “alternative high-speed mobile broadband technologies”, such as mobile WiMax.