Thread: Dr. Ari Jaaksi on Maemo 5
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Jerome is offline Jerome
2008-09-21 , 07:08
Posts: 477 | Thanked: 118 times | Joined on Dec 2005 @ Munich, Germany
#285
A problem we have doing the RNP (Radio Network Planning) for 3G networks, is that the cell capacity per user decreases with the number of users (they share a fixed bandwidth), but also the cell size become smaller as the number of users in the cell grows. In some cases we saw some zones lossing the signal (becoming black zones) when the number of users in a cell increases significantly.
Exactly, that is how medium sharing via spread spectrum degrades: "softly".


I only know that I stopped using my 3G modem some 8 months ago
TA-t3: why don't you complain? The behaviour your are experiencing is not normal. Your provider cannot warranty "perfect service", but this is clearly unacceptable.

Then you don't get what you're paying for, and you can sue the 3G provider for that. If they advertise with 384 kbit upload, and you don't get 1/6 of that, its serious trouble.
But for this you cannot sue: the contracts always say "up to 384 Kbits/s". Maybe you should read the legalize of typical data contracts: they offer you web access at speeds around DSL. Everything else is a gray zone. You can sue if you don't get any service (like TA-t3) or even clearly unacceptable quality (e.g. very slow). You can't if you don't get top service all the time, or if some applications either unusual or explicitly prohibited (voip) do not work. That is the basic reality in plain English.


I mean: it is quite interesting to discuss technicalities, but as far as the tablet is concerned, it all ends up the same: a tablet with voip over hsdpa is not a phone replacement. Either because the provider will block it (as they write in their contracts already) or because it will not work in practice when the cell gets busy (because lag increases to unacceptable levels).

Now we do not know how the cell part will be in the next tablet, but there are two choices:
-either it will be usable as a phone (not over data, but directly as a phone) and we basically have an iPhone competitor
-or it will be data only and we have an equivalent to current offers for the eeepc with an usb 3G modem bundle.

Neither one of these offers is very appealing to me at present, but there is certainly a market for them. But it is not a revolutionary concept as the first tablet was.