2.5G and 3G (Finally) Achieve Critical Mass

A number of data points that I've come across in recent weeks lead me to conclude that, after years of hype and unrealized expectations both by the service providers, equipment developers and end users, high speed cellular data networks are hitting their strides. From a GSM perspective, about a month ago T-Mobile US announced that they'd enabled EDGE service across roughly 90% of their network. It's not clear to me at the moment whether or not this coverage includes regions where they have resource-sharing relationships with other cellular providers, such as in Sacramento where my T-Mobile service is handled by Cingular towers. And since I don't have an EDGE-compatible phone I can't personally test this, although I sure wish I could; for the moment, at least, T-Mobile's not charging extra for EDGE over GPRS, making my $20/month unlimited data plan even more attractive.

Speaking of Cingular, Dell has announced that it's eventually going to start shipping laptops with built-in HSDPA transceivers; HSDPA being the higher-speed follow-on to EDGE (and Dell therefore one-upping Sony, who earlier this year announced laptops with built-in EDGE capability). And speaking of Dell, the company is placing its bets in both camps, W-CDMA (the successor to GSM) and CDMA. It, along with HP and Lenova, is partnering with Verizon to ship laptops with integrated EV-DO data modems. As mentioned in numerous past blog and print writeups, I've been using Sprint's 1xRTT cellular data service for the past two years, on a Novatel Wireless Merlin C201 PC Card. The pending expiration of my contract with Sprint neatly coincided with the announced expansion of both Sprint and Verizon's EV-DO coverage areas, so I requested review cards from both companies.

Sprint sent me a Sierra Wireless AirCard 580, which included drivers for Windows XP and which EVDOinfo has reportedly figured out how to get working with Mac OS X. I haven't yet fired it up yet, in part because EV-DO service in Sacramento is currently limited to the immediate area around the airport (which is 10+ miles, as the crow flies, from my home office), and in part because I'm in the midst of a lot of travel and didn't want to risk losing my existing 1xRTT service (Sprint's PR representative indicated that I'd need to de-install my existing 1xRTT software before I could install Sprint's EV-DO drivers and utilities). Instead, about 1.5 weeks ago I installed Verizon's BroadbandAccess software on both my Dell Inspiron 700m and Apple 15" PowerBook laptops; the Kyocera KPC650 card that Verizon supplied me is notable for providing both Windows and Mac OS X support.

My next blog post will detail my overwhelmingly positive experience with Verizon EV-DO in four different testing locations around the United States. Before I get to that, though, realize that although the US has made tangible near-term progress with respect to high speed cellular data, there's a long way still to go, both absolutely and relative to other countries. For example, although T-Mobile is rolling out EDGE here, the company predicts that by March of next year they’ll have switched every European country that currently has UMTS (which is already more advanced than EDGE) over to HSDPA, initially max'ing out at 1.8 Mpbs downstream speeds. We in the U.S. will have to wait until at least 2007 for T-Mobile-supplied 3G. And regarding Asia, an article in September's issue of IEEE Spectrum discusses the WiMAX-like WiBro network in South Korea, which is targeted for full deployment by mid-next year and will initially deliver 1-3 Mbps of downstream bandwidth (with a path to 18 Mbps) to network clients that are moving at highway speeds. Wow.

One closing point: with EV-DO capable of delivering 300+ Kbps downstream bandwidth, a budding industry is developing not just for mobile users such as myself, but also around LAN routers that employ EV-DO instead of cable, DSL or fiber (such as SureWest offers in Sacramento) as their WAN link. Top Global Systems has loaned me one of its MB8000 routers, which the company claims achieved broad use after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans' wired infrastructure, and which I hope to test-drive when I return to the home office next week. And Kyocera, in partnership with D-Link, is poised to roll out a sub-$200 EV-DO-capable router. These are indeed interesting times for customers evaluating various broadband options!

Continued with 'Verizon's EV-DO: Addictive Speed'….