Why are U.S. carriers so far behind mobile wireless technologies? Why has it taken U.S. carriers so long to begin offering 4G broadband service? Why are Asia, Europe and other areas of the world ahead of U.S. mobile carriers?
Afzal Bajw, writing in Technologizer, summarizes the current status of 4G mobile broadbandIP (Internet-based) solution, used in LTE mobile technology, as superior to Wimax and other solutions. He also writes clearly about the U.S. mobile dilemma: around the world. Bajw argues for an
“The U.S., a traditional leader in innovation and technological advancement, may struggle to adopt 4G as rapidly as other countries. Why? One reason is the difficulty of ramping up LTE during a period of recession. Another is the indecisiveness of U.S. industry heavyweights about next-generation standards. But even if the U.S.’s 4G future is somewhat murky, wireless connectivity is bound to evolve towards higher speed, great traffic capacity and more reliable connections.”
Meanwhile, as reported by Reuters today, AT&T is considering stair-stepping data usage charges for the iPhone and other smartphones:
“‘Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T Mobility, told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York on Tuesday that it would be costly for AT&T to cut the price of its unlimited Web surfing service, which currently costs at least $70 for iPhone users.Instead, AT&T could offer more limited Web surfing on cellphones for a lower fee, similar to its trial offer of 200 megabytes of data downloads for wireless netbook users for $40 a month in Atlanta and in Philadelphia.
“‘Right now we continue to study what is the best thing that is available, not just from an iPhone point of view, but what you can do to stimulate additional demand,” said de la Vega, who is responsible for all of AT&T’s consumer sales along with his role as chief executive of the mobile business.’”
AT&T and the other carriers are universally caught in the same catch-22: stimulate data demand and carriers make more money; but stimulate data demand without sufficient bandwidth and customers are unhappy.
And it’s not just the iPhone, the biggest gas guzzler of them all. Palm and Sprint/Nextel are about ready to release the Palm Pre–the so-called “iPhone killer”–in early June, while Samsung and other major mobile phone manufacturers are churning out dozens of new data-equipped handsets every month.
The problem is BANDWIDTH. While mobile carriers are furiously adding towers, routers, switchers and other networking equipment, they’ll never catch up until reliable 4G networks are operational. Even then, as with the the non-mobile Internet, demand will continue increasing. Face it, we live in an Internet world, increasingly populated by information seekers who use the Internet more often than watching TV.
In the interim, mobile Internet users will find their use of the mobile Web less than stellar. Like Twitter, mobile Internet consumers will occasionally see a whale on their screen (“sorry, we’re out of capacity”) and there’s nothing that mobile carriers can do to avoid the problem, other than choosing 4G mobile broadband technologies that deliver a quality mobile Internet experience.
You must log in to post a comment.