The information that I could find on the web about Sprint’s new ‘3G’ high-speed data service was a little short on solid information, so I spoke with Kevin Packingham, Senior Manager of Business Marketing for SprintPCS’ new Vision service. I sought him out because Ubiquitous, affordable high speed wireless data services are something of a holy grail for tech-savvy road warriors like myself, so I received each morsel of information about Sprint’s new service with great interest. Mr. Packingham spoke over the phone and he clarified many of the questions that I had about the new service.I am interested in the Vision service both for its potential as a conduit for laptops, PDAs, and other devices to connect to the internet through connection with a phone (via cable or bluetooth for example) and also as a service available for purpose-specific handheld devices like the Handspring Treo or PocketPC device from Toshiba that SprintPCS is offering. I am not particularly interested, however, in some of the banner services that SprintPCS is promoting, namely the ability to send photos and download ring tones, and I’m only moderately interested in advanced text messaging.
This service will be billed by the Megabyte of (download or throughput) bandwidth used, rather than by how many minutes you are connected. The Vision service is an always-on service, though when the phone or card is in power-saving suspend mode, network services are suspended.
Network speeds
The SprintPCS Vision network allows for a real-world connection bandwidth of slightly better than a home modem user, though Mr. Packingham insisted that with compression in use, it will be noticeably speedier to browse the web or download files using the Vision network than a 56k modem. The Vision high speed data services are apparently available across the whole SprintPCS network, with comparable available bandwidth at each cell site, though just as signal strength from a particular tower will degrade as more users connect to it, bandwidth and signal strength from this service will also diminish as the sites become overloaded.
Connecting a laptop
It will be possible to connect a laptop or other device to a Vision-enabled mobile phone, though at this time this “connection kit” is not available for all phones. The old SprintPCS internet connection kit was a serial cable that plugged into the phone. It allowed for a painfully slow connection via SprintPCS’ old network, but it worked. I have been told that the new kit is USB-based, but was not able to get much information on it. Expect a review of the capabilities of the connection kit once I get my hands on one. There was no indication that there were plans to allow connection via bluetooth in the future, and currently no SprintPCS phone supports Bluetooth. Mr. Packingham did not have the gory details for how the connection kit will work, or whether it will work with non-Windows systems. The old system came bundled with special dialing software, but it was not necessary as all that was required was a special modem script. He did state that they have stuck with industry standard protocols wherever possible. We will have to see how flexible these options are once the connection kits are more widely available.
Device-only Service
There is also a PC Card device for laptops that allows the computer to connect directly. SprintPCS offers special accounts for these devices that do not come with voice service, but come bundled with a specific number of Megabytes of bandwidth available. To know how much bandwidth you have used, you will be able to access your usage via an interface built-into the device on some devices, via the SprintPCS web site, or by calling *4 on your handset. In order to encourage the adoption of the Vision service, they’re offering the first three months free and they have also priced the bandwidth so there isn’t a harsh penalty for going over the limit since they understand that not everyone has an innate sense of when they’ve used up the introductory 2 megabytes.
Killer App
The feature that SprintPCS seems to be hoping is their “killer app” to promote uptake by businesses is their SprintPCS Business Connection. It’s a customizable service that allows businesses to make their private Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes networks available to mobile users. It consists of custom configuration of gateways on the SprintPCS side and lightweight Outlook and Notes clients on the handset side. With the inclusion of a full-featured browser and the ready availability of network-enabled Palm and PocketPC apps, it would be easy to create interfaces to other business server-side applications, even custom ones.
The Device
I was able to spend a bit of time with the Sprint PCS Handspring Treo 300 device, and found it to be . . . almost there. As a phone, it’s good. It’s a little larger than the StarTAC that I have used for many years, but it’s a lot smaller than my StarTAC and my Palm V together. I’ll save a detailed review of the device for another time. The Vision service was the perfect match for the Treo. Nowadays, I have become so accustomed to being able to pop online whenever I want that I find my old Palm V to be an annoying waste of potential. How I wish I could just browse through my email from it, or check on movie listings, or publish my calendar to the web for my colleagues to see. I wish I could update my weblog from my Palm, or check the weather forecast. Check on my eBay auctions.
The Value
With most of the email-enabled devices these days it will cost you $40 minimum to have basic wireless internet functionality. With SprintPCS vision, it’s $10 to get started, and it gave me everything I wanted. I’m not sure how much over the initial 2 megabytes I would need, but it’s nice to be able to get started for ten bucks.
The Speed
On the Treo, I was able to bring up some favorite web sites, like OSNews (the non-WAP version), and even check some browser-based email. Some of the sites looked a little mangled on such a small screen, but it was all there. Sprint has set up some clipping services that make checking on stuff like stocks and movies quite painless. As for what we’re all wondering about, the speed? The speed was good. Not a pocket OC-3, but more or less like a decent modem connection. It’s fun to play with, and I could get seriously addicted.
The Last Word
Since I haven’t been able to take the SprintPCS Vision system through a complete run-through, I can’t make a firm recommendation yet, but from what I’ve seen so far I like it. Biggest downside? The Vision-enabled phones are expensive. You’re looking at $300 bucks for a decent phone, and $599 for the Treo 300. The service is quite fairly priced; especially considering that SprintPCS’ regular mobile phone packages are among the more economical of the regular carriers. My recommendation: head on down to your local Sprint store and leech some bandwidth in the showroom.
did you ask them why they are branding it 3G when it’s really not?
3G is supposed to be 2Mbps.
Agreed, in US the 3G is really a renamed “2.5G”. But everyone is reffering to it as 3G (for marketing purposes I would think), so…
A phone that can take pictures – cool
A phone that can play games – cool
A phone that has screensavers – HUH?
Oh boy, a horribly expensive phone with horribly expensive network pricing and a short battery life. You know what would make that *perfect*? Power draining SCREENSAVERS! YAY!!
Is this true GSM+GPRS in the US?
Nah, it’s probably more like CDMA2000 or something. Sprint uses CDMA technology.
For GSM+GPRS in the US, you need either AT&T’s mMode, Cingular’s GSM service, or VoiceStream/T-Mobile.
No, that’s 1xRTT CDMA, IIRC.
JBQ
CDMA2000 is being offered by Verizon out this way. It claims to have 144Kbps speed which is a little slower, and like 2.5G its speed drops when moving, but as far as always on internet access it’s here.
I really like the idea of being able to stream DVD quality audio and video off my phone to a television. It isn’t here yet, but in another year the bandwidth on these sort of mobile devices will go up and the codecs will get the data size down such that it will be possible. The reason why I like that example so much is that if you can stream a DVD then you can certainly check your email, browse the web, instant chat with your friends, or use pretty much any other client side application on the Internet today.
IMO it is very sad that companies are allowed to mislead consumers with regard to the real network speeds. Currently only in Japan 3G phone services are commercially available.
NTT DoCoMo is the market leader in Japan, with over 34.6 million 2.5G i-mode users and around 140,000 3G users.
BTW the German and Dutch 2.5G/i-mode versions, currently have well over 100,000 users, with customers being extremely statisfied with this service.
i-mode has recently also been released in Taiwan by KG Telecom.
> statisfied with this service.
… satisfied with this service.
Dutch commercial videos:
http://www.imode.nl/imode/0,1302,2X1166,00.html
Related i-mode article at OSNews:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=968
i don’t think most people who use the new network will even know what technology makes it work. 3G is being used as brand name. No one I know will go out a buy a phone/plan because it uses CDMA, GSM, 3G or 9.3G. They may on the other hand look at the literature, and go with the plan that is cheapest or maybe the fasted data speed… If I’m not making a point let me know I’ll try and think of a better way to say that.
> i don’t think most people who use the new network will
> even know what technology makes it work. 3G is being
> used as brand name.
If that was true then why call it 3G at all? Anything else would be better than using this marketing name. Among the entire tech industry the term “3G” is only used for Third Generation Mobile Telecommunications. For a Tech company to use this name for something that is not a 3G technology is in my opinion very misleading.
At least in Europe the term “3G” is widely known as mobile companies have invested billions of Euros into 3G services.
The ITU defined 3G as having a minimum speed of 144 kbps. In that regard, Sprint Vision (based on qualcomms CDMA 1xRTT) is in fact 3G, barely but it makes it.
Reports regarding both sprint and verizon’s service (they use the same tech) are that any were from 56 K to 64 K is routinely achievable.
The W-CDMA networks that Ericsson and NOkia want to monopolize the “3G” term with will likely provide no better speeds than sprint vision, or at least not much. FOMA users in japan, also a W-CDMA network. are getting 64 kbps on average. problem there is first you build the network for coverage (larger cells) and then for capacity (smaller cells). Other problem is that that magical 2 Mbps is the total capacity of one 5 MHz channel. subtract overhead and you get 986 or so kbps per second. if you don’t have another radio channel then no 2 mbps of useable data. It is also SHARED capacity to get the max you’ll need to sit under the base station at 3 am on a tuesday morning when no one else is using it.
Moreover, 3G vs. not 3G will be determined by consumers based on applications and sprint PCS vision will run most, if not all, of the same apps as W-CDMA.
At the end of the day fighting over whether or not cdma2000 is real 3G vs W-CDMA UMTS is silly. THEY BOTH SUCK FOR DATA. BOTH ARE OPTIMIZED FOR VOICE. BOTH COST TOO MUCH AND DELIVER TOO LITTLE.
If you want to see something that will deliver the 3G experience then check out http://www.flarion.com or http://www.broadstorm.com. These are the real deal
Another interesting note. Check out this article
http://www.nordicwirelesswatch.com/wireless/story.html?story_id=222…
Sounds like nokia is pushing GPRS as 3G now as well.
The ITU uses the following criteria with regard to 3G:
“384 kbps for in pedestrian or urban environments”
FOMA in Japan does meet these requirements.
ryan wrote:
> FOMA users in japan, also a W-CDMA network. are getting
> 64 kbps on average.
Those are upload speeds.
FOMA definitely meets the ITU’s specs. No doubt about it. but that is shared capacity. It is not necessarily the user experience.
> NTT DoCoMo is the market leader in Japan, with over 34.6
> million 2.5G i-mode users and around 140,000 3G users.
A typo that should have been “34 million 2G/2.5G i-mode users”. All German and Dutch i-mode handsets however currently offer up to 115 kbps by default.
In general one can easily say Japan is very far ahead with regard to mobile communications compared to western countries.
“In general one can easily say Japan is very far ahead with regard to mobile communications compared to western countries.”
No doubt that in regards to implementation, japan is ahead but not in technology.
If you look at the companies that are moving wireless tech forward like arraycomm, navini, flarion, e-tenna,Ashvatha semiconductor, Iospan Wireless, etc, most are start ups and most are in the US.
W-CDMA, which FOMA uses, for that matter is a incremental step forward from CDMA IS-95/2000. The industry needs a lot better price/performance.
The other issue is just the different life style in japan. Things like longer commutes, greater use of public transportation and still low, formerly lower, use of the wired internet are factors. For a lot of japanese (roughly 1/3 of users by some estimates) imode was their first experience of the web.
My question is what happens to imode as japanese become more accustomed to the real web on larger screens. If they are really outside of their house as much as people claim then maybe not much. I guess we’ll see.
I spilled some coke on my keyboard so some keys don’t work very well. I accidentally typed http://www.printpcs.com which apparently has nicer cell phones.
> No doubt that in regards to implementation, japan is
> ahead but not in technology.
Without a doubt the US has a firm position as a leader within the PC market. However I believe with regard to mobile communications Japan clearly lead in technology and even with regard to general consumer electronics the Japanese lead together with Dutch and German.
I am not being chauvinistic here, as I’m not Japanese.
“However I believe with regard to mobile communications Japan clearly lead in technology ”
nope just not true, and i am not being chauvinistic either.
I work with start ups in wireless technology so i get to see a lot of stuff early, and the break through technology is almost always coming from start ups, again most of which are in the state of california in the US. If anyone has a lead in tech (not implementation, the US lags there)it is the state of california, forget the US.
The technologies that will move wireless forward, as opposed to UMTS WCDMA which is a slight improvement, are things like
Beamforming (adaptive antenna arrays)
OFDM or W-OFDM(air interface)
MIMO (multiple in multiple out (more than one antenna)
Spatial processing (creates massive increases in capacity)
IP centric core and native support for TCP/IP
FAST ARQ
Multi-mode chip sets (802.11/cellular, wcdma/gsm/cdma2000)
more efficient antennas at the handset (check out e-tenna)
efficient wireless MACs (not easy to do)
Peer to peer ad hoc networking (mesh networking)
Most of that is coming from the US. The best engineers left ericsson, NEC, and nokia years ago to become rich at little start ups with great tech. The best wireless technolog is and has been with the US department of defense since the 50’s. the US DoD is about 20 to 30 years ahead of the wireless industry, and its alumni often populate those little start ups. The dod, by way, has already given us spread spectrum (cdma), Ultrawideband, smart antennas, mesh networking, low-power/efficient power amplifers (GaAs), etc. the DoD had CDMA 40-50 years ago. Ericsson/nokia are still having problems with it today.
YOu don’t hear about it because the little start ups don’t have the hype machine of Europe inc, or Japan, inc. or even America, inc. By the way, those start ups are composed of europeans, americans, and asians. the Venture capital environment is what attracts them to the US. Europe, inc. and japan inc are just vying for supremacy in market share, not really technolgoy. don’t listen to them. Have faith in the free market economy. Autocrats (yes those people behind W-CDMA)can neither control nor predict the fast moving tech economy. it has a mind of its own.
If there would exist a “Country Inc.” I believe that would be an “USA Inc.”, for instance the US goverment always has a big mouth when it comes to open markets, but they themselves often do quite the opposite. If it comes down to unfair tax cuts for exporting companies, levying taxes on imported goods, bullying/sanctioning foreign policies, ignoring global environment issues, etc the USA sadly wins the crown… The country acts as one big self-promoting and self-centered company.
Europe’s relative weakness lies in the fact many countries seem to have different standpoints. With regard to US states, these mostly do what the US goverment and President orders them to do, forming a huge mighty economic and political block.
Back to mobile technology, it is a mistake to think such innovative companies do not exist in Europe and Japan. Huge European and Japanese companies like Philips, Nokia, Sony, Kyocera, NTT DoCoMo, JVC, etc do alot of innovative wireless research as well, either “in-house” or by investing into smaller 3rd party companies.
Even European Tech executives acknowledge that Japan is far ahead with regard to mobile communications in comparison to the rest in the world. With regard to “implementation” the US is currently even lagging behind compared to western Europe!
America, inc? well the country is run by coporations so i guess that is fair. But the hype that Europe and Japan have put up about 3G and their alleged “superiority” is just sickening. yes they are ahead in implementation but not in technology and the hype is just irritating. Look at korea. They are kicking Europe’s and Japan’s rear in style.They say little and do a lot. I respect that enormously. I just wish European and japanese wireless interests would do the same. the constant hype is like water torture.
interesting factuiod. the wireless business model is accelerated when you operate in high-density areas, like Europe and japan. High density gives you a quicker ROI and the entire cycle goes quicker. This IMHO is one of the reasons why wireless implementation is moving so quickly in Europe and Japan. There are obviously lots of others. Other interesting factuoid. Japan has several competing non-compatible technologies yet penetration is high. So much for the US is behind becuase we have competing technologies. Other factuoid, unlimited local calling plans in the US have historically been far cheaper then those in japan and Europe. That means that the price difference between cell phones service and local service (per minute use) in the US is comparatively larger than in other places.
Back to the story.
Japanese and European companies do a lot of innovative research in wireless. Yes. agree there. For example, alcatel came up with the first GSM direct conversion radio though it didn’t really work very well.
Still when you look at the breakthroughs, the things i mentioned above. they are not coming from Europe or Japan.
nonetheless, i have lots of respect for the work being done in Japan and Europe. Much of it is also very impressive.I just wish they’d turn off the hype machine.
> But the hype that Europe and Japan have put up about 3G
> and their alleged “superiority” is just sickening.
I don’t think US companies produce any less hype. During my visits to the US my impression was that in general much more marketing and hyping was going on in this country.
> ahead in implementation but not in technology and the
> hype is just irritating.
You don’t know what is being worked on behind the scenes in Japan and vice versa. The actual implementation of technology is however the most important indicator. Believe me, the Japanese are working on some nifty gadgets and innovative technologies.
The fact is that DoCoMo was the first to launch a real 3G service back in October 2001 (based on W-CDMA).
> Look at korea. They are kicking Europe’s and Japan’s
> rear in style. They say little and do a lot. I respect
> that enormously.
They are doing marketing as well. Maybe where you live they focuss more on European and Japanese markets?
> the wireless business model is accelerated when you
> operate in high-density areas, like Europe and japan.
Yes this is a factor. But the New York – Washington erea or the Los Angeles – San Francisco area within California, are extremely populated as well. Of course operators don’t need to cover all states simultaniously (and handsets can be made compatible with less advanced networks as a fallback option).
> Japan has several competing non-compatible technologies
> yet penetration is high. So much for the US is behind
> becuase we have competing technologies.
Yes both markets have competing technologies. So I don’t really understand this statement.
> Other factuoid, unlimited local calling plans in the US
> have historically been far cheaper then those in japan
> and Europe. That means that the price difference between
> cell phones service and local service (per minute use)
> in the US is comparatively larger than in other places.
One important reasons for higher prices in Europe are higher goverment taxes. This counts for all types of services. Lower taxes in the US should mean a benefit with regard to profit-abilities for US operators.
> Still when you look at the breakthroughs, the things i
> mentioned above. they are not coming from Europe or
> Japan.
There are many breakthroughs in Europe and Japan as well. Global standards however are being developed (or need to be adopted) by international consortiums of companies. You may not know about all the breakthrough technologies in Japan, simply because you don’t live in Japan.