January 10, 2002

8:06 PM

Sprint sets this summer for nationwide 3G launch in USHuh ??? Everywhere in Europe, which is supposedly so much more advanced, the talk is how far off the 3G roll out is, how carriers may go under because of the prices paid for spectrum, how hand sets won't be available, how it will take years to make any money. I mean, the best they can currently do is 76,000 people on the 30-mile by 10-mile Isle of Man. Yet a nationwide 3G network in the US this summer ? We should be so lucky. It's hard enough for the phone companies to get DSL to work. (PS Voicestream's 2.5G GPRS service in NYC does work well most of the time.)
posted by Voyageman (8 comments total)

Hard enough for the phone companies to get DSL to work?? HA, its hard enough for them to get the current cell network to work - or at least work flawlessly. I've rarely used someone's phone (no cell phone for me) and not had problems - dropped connection, bad connection,,,,,,, hello?
posted by tomplus2 at 8:50 PM on January 10, 2002

Sounds very ambitious. I am pleasantly surpised.

Having said that, I dont think mobile phone as a vehicle for internet access /rich content delivery etc. isn't yet ready for prime time in North America. Not only is the penetration in mobile phones /household a lot less out here than in Europe / other developer economies, the cost of mobile access works out to be much higher in US. Unlike most parts of Europe, US consumers still pay connect time charges for internet access thru their mobile operator. Consumer web access in US took off in a big way only after monthly flat rates started becoming commonplace.

Even for those who want to use their mobile for internet access / other services, The lack of truely useful content, terrible user interfaces etc.have been a major cause of frustration.

But I guess if Sprint does really bring in 3G this summer(and hopefully revisits the pricing schemes), that might bring in sea changes in the way the medium is currently used in USA.
posted by justlooking at 8:53 PM on January 10, 2002

all I want is a cell phone with a high-quality digital camera that'll drop the images on a server somewhere, a PDA, am/fm/xm radio, mp3 player, internet connection to check my email and a fast enough connection to listen to streaming radio stations. throw in java and flash while you're at it. video would be nice too. as long as it doesn't cost too much, i'm down.

in reality, trying to use Sprint PCS service in Manhattan at 5/6 pm Friday when everyone is using their phones results in so many dropped calls that I don't even bother anymore.
posted by panopticon at 11:30 PM on January 10, 2002

There's the camera with Java support and Symbian OS.. now get an fm/am handsfree and all you're lacking is an Mp3 player, hmm..

I don't really care about 3G, a T39 (GPRS) and a nice palmtop is all you really need..
posted by Mossy at 4:13 AM on January 11, 2002

mossy, i hate you. my little motorola has java support but none of those other goodies. must have. must have.
posted by lescour at 8:03 AM on January 11, 2002

Here's a great new must have T68
posted by Voyageman at 8:12 AM on January 11, 2002

I don't want another mobile voice standard. Mobile voice isn't very interesting. In a drawer somewhere, I have a big honkin' half-pound analog phone somewhere that can deliver that functionality and there's no reason to allocate yet another chunk of spectrum to duplicate it.

I want a nice, cheap PCMCIA card to stick in the side of my laptop or palmtop that gives me a data network connection with the ubiquity roughly equivalent to the mobile voice network. Yet another cheesy browser-in-a-phone solution isn't a very valuable service. I want mobile SSH, IM, IRC, and X. I want wireless Ethernet with a coverage area in the hundreds of thousands of square miles.

Wake me up when there's a ubiquitous cellular data network that moves IP packets at better than modem speeds from 1990.

And a pony.
posted by majick at 8:43 AM on January 12, 2002

Never ceases to amaze me how that my wireless and DSL services are flawless, while nothing else tends to work very well. There are some benefits to living in Korea. Telecoms is one of them.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:07 AM on January 13, 2002