 |  | 
TZi
k1L0
join:2001-07-05
Miami Beach, FL
edited
| Re: Since it's imode based.... said by juicelee:
Will japanese phones work with mMode? I'd rather buy one of those than carry around an uncomfortable clunker in my pocket.
Nope, Japan uses its own proprietary standard completely disparate from IS-136/TDMA or GSM.
Furthermore, have you seen some of the GSM handsets available or due-to-be-released by Ericsson and Nokia (like the nokia 7210)?, they're far from fat and clunky. In fact, most of the GSM handsets are far more sleek and functional than the majority of TDMA and CDMA handsets offered here in the U.S. If you want fat and clunky, try looking at some of Sprint's Kyocera and Samsung phones...
It's worth noting also, that you don't necessarily have to own an "mMode" handset per-se to use their mMode service, it's just a WAP page that loads up if you use a GPRS+GSM handset on their network.
While some may disagree, I think that their new mMode service is a lot more useful and versatile than it's predecessor, Pocketnet. Finally, a wireless carrier has gotten a clue and actually compiled useful information on their wap gateway instead of leaving it up to the user to find a use for the wireless web. (though you can still go to your own sites if you want).
From my experience so far, mMode is actually quite useful and has a lot of potential. Granted, GSM is hardly AT&T's de-facto standard at the moment, it will probably take a while before the mMode "system" becomes popular. Right now for 1$/month , for example, I can enter my zip code and download a real-time full-screen color radar map for my neighborhood and it's quite accurate to boot. I haven't explored the other areas of the service since it just came up on my handset last week, but there's a lot of stuff to do and explore; certainly enough content to carry me through my 1.5 hour COBOL class I am forced to attend every day! 
If you're going to do any serious WAP browsing on AT&T's GPRS network, I highly recommend the Ericsson T68. The color screen and joystick literally adds a new dimension to browsing the internet on your mobile phone. With the T68, the wireless web emerges from obscurity into realm of actual usefulness..
PS For those of you who thought a color screen and an internet connection might come in "handy", porn is NOT an offering of mMode! yet anwyays...
--
Miami Hurricanes #1 (we're back!)
[text was edited by author 2002-04-16 21:32:12] | |
|
TZi
k1L0
join:2001-07-05
Miami Beach, FL
edited
| Now we know what Mlife was about. If you look at the history of AT&T/Cellular One, you can see why the whole mLife campaing was somewhat necessary. I mean, they used the "white lie" that digital cellular technology was better to lure the public into buying into the now-obsolete IS-136/TDMA technology.
So, now they can't sell their new network based on the digital buzz word, and nobody in the US really knows what GSM is; hence the need for mLife. Even though GSM is a real improvement over their existing TDMA system, I think they'll have a hard time convincing customers of this after so many people were annoyed by TDMA when they first rolled out that technology. When they finally deploy the MMS portion of their 2.5g network, I imagine a lot of people will want to switch when they see that they can send pictures in their SMS's though.
--
Miami Hurricanes #1 (we're back!)
[text was edited by author 2002-04-16 21:47:05] | |
| Tarmax
join:2001-05-03
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| wireless connections faster than ones at home?? Anyone read AT&T's press release about this whole GSM rollout? It talks about how the GSM/GPRS rollout is the first step of their three step "3G" technology rollout.
And as AT&T claims, GPRS allows downloads up to 115KB/s, which if i'm not mistaken, is much faster than even the majority of what consumers home connections are. Not only that, but they plan to upgrade that even further (step 2)- once the GSM rollout is complete- using so-called "EDGE" technology (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) to 384KB/s.
Finally, they plan on upgrading GSM again (step 3) using the UMTS standard (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)- aka W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access)- which would allow 2MB/s communication...
Now what I'm getting at.. is this just marketing techno-babble and these speeds will be nearly unreachable to anyone on the network? Or will this actually work, and could the wireless/mobile network truly be that much more advanced than the wired available to consumers??
I mean, yeah, I know that everything outside the US is deffinately more advanced, especially when compared to Japan and Korea; but could AT&T have actually found a loophole in the FCC's giant cabinet of rules and the government's mile-high stacks of acts, laws, and other miscellaneous rules regulating everything from how fast we're able to drive down I-95 to how a farmer should f**k his goats..!??
As an afterthought: Sorry if I've offended any farmers or government employees in this post :P | |
| |
TZi
k1L0
join:2001-07-05
Miami Beach, FL
| Re: wireless connections faster than ones at home?? said by Tarmax:
And as AT&T claims, GPRS allows downloads up to 115KB/s, which if i'm not mistaken, is much faster than even the majority of what consumers home connections are.
That's what GPRS is technically capable of under the best conditions and network configuration. I've used their GPRS service on my laptop, and you get up to 45kbps at best. Furthermore, unless you specifically ask for it, you don't get a public IP address and the connection only supports a handful of rudimentary protocols like SMTP, FTP, HTTP, POP3 and DNS. While you can check your e-mail, browse the web and do some minor streaming video, there are way too many limitations on the service right now to actually use it unless you really have to. To top it all off, 10mb of usage a month can cost you $39.99 a month and 5$ per megabyte in excess of that. AT&T's GPRS network is not going to be your primary ISP anytime soon, nor does it want to be. It is, however, definitely better than it's predecessor, CDPD/TDMA or GSM data which were both limited to ~ 14 kbps, and if you're truly in need of it, GPRS can be a godsend as long as you've got the $$$.
Granted, the price will eventually come down, but it will never be a wireline broadband substitute. Sure, their UMTS system may support 2mbps symmetrical connections to the internet, but their spectrum licenses are far too valuable to clog up with always-on broadband equivalent services. The most likely application of that 2mpbs bandwidth will be true 3g applications like phone-based video conferencing and streaming-media.
--
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt. | |
| | | |
|
|
