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Stories by Category

Adapters :: Adapters Bluetooth ExpressCard Handheld Integrated laptop PC Card USB UWB
Administrative :: Administrative
Applications :: Applications Storage
Bridges :: Bridges
Data Types :: Data Types 1xRTT 3G 4G EDGE EVDO EVDV Flash-OFDM GPRS GSM HSDPA LTE TD-CDMA TD-SCDMA UMB UMTS Wi-Fi
Future :: Future
Media :: Media MediaFLO
Roaming :: Roaming
Software :: Software
VoIP :: VoIP

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Recent Entries

EDGE's Evolution
Broadcom Sells EDGE Chips to Nokia
AT&T EDGE Network Falters on iPhone's First Workday
Cingular Launches Worldwide 3G Plan
New Sony Laptop has EDGE
T-Mobile Plans to Continue Fence Sitting
EDGE Card with an Edge; Cell Router

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Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2006 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.

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Category: EDGE

March 27, 2008

EDGE's Evolution

By Glenn Fleishman

Mobile base station makers to introduce double and quadruple speed EDGE: EDGE is criticized for being an also-ran technology, despite its wide use. It’s 2.5G, the mid-generation step between modem-speed/voice 2G and wanna-be broadband 3G. But EDGE’s evolution takes its top potential rate of 236 Kbps in the current implementation to 592 Kbps, InfoWorld reports. This is an advantage for countries and carriers that don’t have 3G rolled out, because existing spectrum and licenses can still be used. For some equipment, the upgrade is just a software change; for phones, new chips are needed. A future version of EDGE, EGRPS II, will boost downstream speeds to 1.2 Mbps and upstream to 473 Kbps.

Posted by Glennf at 12:56 PM | Comments (1)

August 8, 2007

Broadcom Sells EDGE Chips to Nokia

By Glenn Fleishman

Big move for Broadcom, despite modest appearance: EDGE may be old technology, but it’s being rolled out like crazy in devices, since the networks have been built and are underused. Hence, the iPhone. Broadcom said today that Nokia, the dominant handset maker, will buy its EDGE chips from them. Broadcom says EDGE will be in 400m devices by 2009.

Broadcom is riding high on the various bits of news and legal decisions related to its ongoing patent battles with Qualcomm, including the decision by the US Trade Representative to allow a trade commission standing banning new handset models with Qualcomm 3G chips from entering the country; a judge’s slapdown of Qualcomm’s attorneys and standards’ group practices that have led the judge to find two patents invalid; and the potential for more of the same to come.

Posted by Glennf at 1:00 PM | Comments (0)

July 3, 2007

AT&T EDGE Network Falters on iPhone's First Workday

By Glenn Fleishman

AT&T’s EDGE network suffered outages in the West and Midwest: AT&T didn’t tell Nancy Gohring, friend of this site, when the outage started, what caused it, or what they’d do to prevent it in the future. Customers weren’t notified in any fashion, either, despite the wide availability of broadcast SMS, which AT&T uses for sales purposes. This was the first business day after the iPhone went on sale; the iPhone uses EDGE when a Wi-Fi network isn’t available, which means most of the time outside a home or coffeeshop.

Posted by Glennf at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2006

Cingular Launches Worldwide 3G Plan

By Glenn Fleishman

Cingular becomes first US carrier to offer worldwide card, plan: The insanely named Option GlobeTrotter GT Max LaptopConnect card handles 850, 900, 1800, 1900, and 2100 megahertz (MHz) spectrum bands, covering GSM, GPRS, UMTS, and HSDPA worldwide. The card will be $100 with a two-year domestic or one-year GlobalConnect commitment. The card also includes Wi-Fi.

The service is priced by countries included in a particular plan. A North American plan includes the US, Canada, and Mexico for $110 per month; for $140 per month you get two dozen countries including North America and Australia, China, France, Germany, England, Japan, and others. These two plans include unlimited data in the US and 100 MB of data transfer in the selected other countries.

Data above the 100 MB is $5 per MB in GlobalConnect countries and $19.50 per MB in about 80 other countries. These overages may appear quite expensive in some ways, but having a defined and consistent rate has its benefits, and should allow control.

Other carriers with worldwide plans require two separate PC Cards. The antenna on this card retracts, allowing it to remain in the laptop while in storage or travel.

Posted by Glennf at 3:03 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2005

New Sony Laptop has EDGE

By Glenn Fleishman

Sony’s Vaio T350 includes an EDGE modem for CIngular’s network: The $2,199 and up laptop is configured to work only with Cingular’s EDGE service. Unlimited service is $80 per month; $50 per month buys you 50 MB of data transfer. Given that Verizon is charging $80 per month for unlimited data at a rate that’s at least five times faster, this seems a bit rich even though Cingular already has a national EDGE network and Verizon must built its slower 1xRTT up to EVDO in most of the country.

This AP piece says that CIngular will roll out UMTS this year and next, but other reports have said Cingular will skip UMTS in favor of HSDPA, even though it means waiting, to ensure higher data speeds in the same limited spectrum.

Posted by Glennf at 2:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 2, 2005

T-Mobile Plans to Continue Fence Sitting

By Glenn Fleishman

T-Mobile goes for EDGE, but no further: They think the market is too immature and revenue unassured for true 3G flavors. They might be right. Verizon Wireless is happy with its EVDO uptake and I can find plenty of customers who rave about it. But the revenue side isn’t clear to financial analysts.

Even if T-Mobile wanted to build 3G networks, they don’t have the spectrum portfolio to do so. They expect to build a 3G network by 2007 or 2008, long after Cingular, Sprint PCS, and Verizon Wireless. This might save them money or avoid massive losses; or they could lose out on the biggest change in data networking of the decade. We’ll see.

Posted by Glennf at 1:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 24, 2005

EDGE Card with an Edge; Cell Router

By Glenn Fleishman

Sony Ericsson plans four-mode PC Card with Wi-Fi and Kyocera offers EVDO router: PC Magazine reports on two upcoming options for aiding laptop connections to the Internet via cellular data networks.

Sony Ericsson’s $80 PC Card will include GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and Wi-Fi, with full security support on the Wi-Fi side. T-Mobile and Cingular will likely offer this card for $50 as part of a service bundle.

Meanwhile, Kyocera showed off its EVDO router, a device that routes EVDO connections from the cellular network to local Ethernet and Wi-Fi. This is an interesting option, but it’s worth pointing out that at least two other companies have offered the same kind of product for some months, most notably the Seattle-based Junxion with their Junxion Box that supports a whole host of PC Cards. They’ve been working with a national firm that resells to system integrators, so their pipeline has been running for many months.

Posted by Glennf at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack