Starting Points: 3G

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Jun 2, 2010

Inexpensive Wi-Fi That Travels With You

Image by Global X via Flickr

By THOMAS J. FITZGERALD

Wi-Fi is everywhere.

Or so it seems until you really need it and there is no coffee house with a free hot spot. Or when you don’t want to pay a fee to connect at the airport or a hotel for an hour.

Our pockets and bags are filling with Web-connected devices: laptops, smartphones, netbooks, tablets, e-readers and even cameras. But to connect one when Wi-Fi is not available means using a cellphone network, and that usually requires buying a new data plan for each device.

The cost-cutting solution might be to create your own personal Wi-Fi hot spot, a cloud of Internet connectivity to keep with you wherever you go. Not only can a personal hot spot provide a single point of access for all of your devices, it can be shared with friends.

The options are growing. You can buy a simple, slim unit that fits in a pocket or ones that can shift from 3G to speedier 4G networks. You can convert some cellphones into hot spots, while a few new phones now come with hot spots included. I tried several such options while traveling and in my daily routine to see what they offered.

The Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon Wireless ($29.99 with a two-year contract) or Sprint (free after $50 rebate and with a two-year contract), is a Wi-Fi hot spot small enough to slip into a shirt pocket. It is a mysterious-looking object with no screen and a single button.

It wirelessly connects to a 3G cellular network just like a phone, but it also broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal to the surrounding area. Devices within a 30-foot range can connect. I used the MiFi while traveling by car from Boston to New York. Having the coverage brought peace of mind when using Google Maps on my iPod Touch and my laptop to guide me around Brooklyn.

Still, 3G speeds can be slower than what is available at land-based hot spots. Back at home, downloading my daughter’s favorite videos was faster on our home wireless network.

Verizon’s monthly data plans for the MiFi are $39.99 for 250 megabytes of data, or $59.99 for 5 gigabytes, with extra charges for exceeding those limits. Sprint charges $59.99 for 5 gigabytes and extra for exceeding limits. Another pocket-size option, the Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot, from Sprint ($49.99 with a two-year contract), is slightly thicker than the MiFi but comes with more features. The first is speed. It can connect not only to Sprint’s 3G network, but also its new and speedier 4G network. The 4G network is not yet available nationally, but if you are in one of the 33 cities covered, including Seattle, Atlanta and Houston, speeds are fast. (Sorry, New York is not included.)

Another feature that was useful: a bright screen that displays information like remaining battery life, signal strength, the hot spot’s name and password and number of connected devices. The monthly data plan is $59.99, with unlimited 4G usage and a 5 gigabyte cap on 3G and extra charges for exceeding it.

The Clear Spot, from Clearwire, is another 4G option. In fact, it uses the same 4G network as Sprint (Sprint is the majority owner of Clearwire.) The Clear Spot is bigger than the Overdrive and probably not ideal to keep in your pocket during use; it requires a U.S.B. modem, with pricing from $69.99 to $224.99 depending on features. But if your goal is 4G speeds, the Clear Spot delivers.

Not all areas of each city are covered by the network so reviewing the company’s coverage map beforehand is helpful. The Clear Spot costs $49.99 and supports up to eight devices within a range up to 150 feet. Service plans with unlimited access start at $40 a month and a U.S.B. modem can also be leased for $3.99 a month. A plan offering 3G speeds in areas outside the 4G network is also available.

The CradlePoint PHS300 ($99.99 at Amazon), works with dozens of phones and also U.S.B. modems. Depending on your carrier, it may work with your phone’s existing data plan or require one that allows tethering. I used one with a BlackBerry Storm; after powering on the PHS300 and connecting it to the BlackBerry, I was viewing Web pages on my laptop in just under a minute and the battery lasted two hours and 20 minutes. The PHS300, from CradlePoint Technology, based in Boise, Idaho, is the same size as the Clear Spot.

The latest way to create a mobile hot spot is with cellphones. This can eliminate the clutter of carrying and charging an extra device. Through Verizon, the Palm Pre Plus ($49.99 with two-year contract) and Pixi Plus (free with a two-year contract) include this option.

Using a Pre Plus with an iPad, I was online and viewing Web pages in about 15 to 30 seconds after waking the iPad from power-save mode. Also useful, the phone chimed when the iPad connected, letting me know I was ready to surf.

Using the phone as a hot spot quickly drained the phone’s battery, even with light surfing. Verizon is now waiving its $40 monthly fee for the hot spot feature. Monthly data plans for unlimited access start at $29.99, which could be an alternative for iPad owners. Starting Monday, Apple will no longer offer its unlimited data plan for the iPad 3G.

More phones with personal hot spots are on the way. Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G, which can run on Sprint’s 4G network, is expected Friday ($199.99 with a contract and rebate; plans for both calling and data begin at $69.99 plus a $10 premium data fee and $29.99 a month for the hot spot feature).

Google’s recently updated Android operating system, version 2.2, includes a hot spot feature and is expected to be made available soon. But not all Android phones will support that function.

Software can turn many new and older phones into hot spots, too. WMWifiRouter, from Morose Media, based in the Netherlands, works on a variety of phones. I used it on an HTC Touch Pro2, which runs the Windows Mobile operating system. The software ($19.99 at wmwifirouter.com) can be downloaded directly to the phone.

JoikuSpot (joikushop.com) supports the Symbian operating system, including many phones from Nokia and Samsung. Depending on your tolerance for risk, some phones like the iPhone and some Android phones, can be hacked to work as hot spots. Steps for hacking are posted across the Internet, but you risk voiding a phone’s warranty.

There was no one solution that was best for all users in all situations. It depends on the cellphone service you have, the devices you own and where you live or travel. With a laptop, an iPod Touch and maybe an iPad in the future, I like the idea of not carrying around yet another device.

After all, without having to depend on coffee shops for Internet access, I may also be carrying around my coffee.

Apr 18, 2010

Getting What You Pay for on the Mobile Internet - NYTimes.com

Image via Wikipedia

By KEVIN J. O'BRIEN

BERLIN — When TeliaSonera, the Nordic telecommunications operator, switched on the world’s fastest wireless network last December, customers quickly ratcheted up their consumption of mobile data tenfold.

Besides reaffirming the soundness of the operator’s investment in the new technology, called Long Term Evolution, or L.T.E., the data smorgasbord confirmed another truism: the days of flat-rate mobile data rates are probably drawing to a close.

All-you-can-eat plans — as they are known in the industry — were introduced when the mobile Web was in its infancy and demand was profitable and manageable. But with traffic booming, reflecting the growing popularity of smartphones, social networking and downloading music and video, network operators fear that flat-rate plans will eat into profits or even fail to cover costs.

The result is likely to be higher prices for consumers.

“Finding a way to make mobile profitable in the medium and long term is one of the industry’s big priorities,” said Mike Roberts, an analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “We are now at the early stages of figuring out a way forward.”

Even before it spent 500 million Swedish kronor, or $70 million, to switch on its L.T.E. network last year, TeliaSonera began introducing pricing plans with download limits as advances in the third-generation technology that preceded L.T.E. led to an explosion in traffic.

“In 2009, the mobile data on our network in Sweden increased by 200 percent but the number of subscribers increased just 60 percent,” said Anna Augustson, vice president for communications mobility services at TeliaSonera in Stockholm. “Clearly, it was not a sustainable model from a business perspective to have a single, flat rate.”

Last year, TeliaSonera began selling a series of 3G mobile broadband data plans with monthly limits ranging from 2 gigabytes to 20 gigabytes a month, for 39 to 319 kronor.

TeliaSonera is selling an introductory L.T.E. network plan with unlimited downloads for 4 kronor a month. But by July, the operator plans to limit downloads to 30 gigabytes and charge 599 kronor for the service, almost twice the cost of its 20-gigabyte 3G plan.

In exchange, TeliaSonera’s L.T.E. users will get download speeds of 20 to 40 megabits a second, about 10 times those on its 3G network.

“We feel it is important for our customers to have a choice,” Ms. Augustson said. Instead of all you can eat, the new industry mantra, she said, is: “You get what you pay for.”

At least one major operator is doing likewise. In Spain last November, Vodafone, the largest European carrier, introduced Calidad Oro — Gold Quality — a premium plan for business users for €49, or $66, a month that guarantees fast service without monthly limits on downloads.

The advent of tiered pricing for mobile broadband is new, but, in a sense, it is also a throwback to the early days of the technology, when operators imposed often unrealistically high download fees that scared off consumers and delayed the development of the mobile Web.

Eventually, operators began selling all-you-can-eat plans, first in the United States and then in Europe, to ease consumer angst about running up big bills. The plans attracted users and helped speed the technology’s development. Now, some operators are moving toward sophisticated forms of metered pricing based on speed and consumption, striving to balance profitability and consumer satisfaction.

Soon, the biggest operators are likely to follow with plans that redefine how most consumers purchase wireless data. Top executives at AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica have all recently called on the industry to move away from flat-rate data plans, although only Vodafone so far has attempted a tiered pricing plan.

At AT&T, the No.2 wireless carrier in the United States, after Verizon Wireless, the use of mobile data surged 5,000 percent from 2007 through 2009 after the operator became the exclusive U.S. seller of Apple’s iPhone, which has helped popularize the mobile Web. But it has also strained AT&T’s wireless network at peak times in urban areas in New York and California.

“In light of the limited natural resource of spectrum, we have to look at the ways of conserving spectrum,” said Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman in Atlanta. “We have had to invest billions in our network to keep ahead of this demand. This may also require a different way of looking at pricing on the part of the industry.”

Operators do not disclose whether their mobile data services are profitable, although analysts say they are and point to the industrywide move to build L.T.E. networks, which are essentially mobile broadband networks, as the future for a business where revenue from voice services will play an ever-shrinking role.

Mobile data traffic levels are expected to continue climbing as the use of bandwidth-eating smartphones increases and operators around the world follow TeliaSonera’s example and install their own L.T.E. high-speed networks.

The number of mobile broadband users worldwide is forecast to increase 55 percent this year, to 437.8 million from 282.5 million in December 2009, according to Informa, the telecommunications research firm. By the end of 2014, the number of mobile broadband users is projected to reach 2.1 billion.

Over the same period, the level of mobile data traffic on the networks of the world’s carriers is expected to rise 22 times, to 15.1 billion gigabytes from 674 million gigabytes. But without changes in pricing, operator revenue will rise 12 percent a year through 2014, according to Informa, just a fraction of the 49 percent projected annual increase in subscribers or the 86 percent annual increase in data traffic.

Operators are just beginning to link the price of a service — in this case mobile broadband — to the costs to a mobile network, said Kenneth Frank, the president of solutions and marketing for Alcatel-Lucent, a network equipment maker. “There is going to be so much creativity about pricing. We are only seeing the beginning,” Mr. Frank said.

Steve Smith, an analyst at Coda Research Consultancy in Guildford, England, said unlimited flat rates would not disappear but would become much more expensive. “Operators will have to work hard to get their tiers ‘right,”’ Mr. Smith said.

Over time, consumers will have many options for buying customized wireless broadband plans, said Pat McCarthy, a vice president for global marketing at Telcordia, a maker of bandwidth management software for operators based in Piscataway, New Jersey. Those may not mean higher costs for the average user, but heavy users may face higher bills.

“The problem with mobile broadband so far has been most of the revenue it has generated has gone to over-the-top Internet content services, not to the operators,” said Mr. McCarthy, who is based in Galway, Ireland. “That’s what they are trying to change.”

Jul 30, 2009

With WiMax, Walking on the Wireless Side in Baltimore

By PETER WAYNER

Baltimore, the home of the hapless Orioles and a favorite backdrop for so-called realistic TV crime dramas, just happens to be one of the most wired cities in the country. It ascended to the throne after Clearwire introduced WiMax service last winter, giving the city a preview of what the company is slowly building throughout the country.

Calling the city “wired” is not quite accurate because, HBO series aside, WiMax has little to do with copper; it delivers the Internet through radio signals broadcast from cellphone towers. The service is much faster, though, than what many cellphone networks currently provide with their 3G networks. Indeed, WiMax delivers speeds much faster than many DSL circuits, rivaling many cable modems. I often clock downloads at 6 megabits per second (equivalent to basic cable service in many areas) and uploads at faster than 1 megabit per second.

Sprint, one of the owners of Clearwire, calls WiMax a “4G network” to distinguish it from the 3G networks that connect smartphones and offer speeds from 0.4 to 1 megabit per second. To make matters a bit more confusing, Clearwire sells “pre-WiMax” service in 47 cities at speeds that top out at 2 megabits per second. In an effort to clarify the matter, Clearwire is using the brand name “Clear” to apply to full WiMax service.

For the last six months, I’ve used a full WiMax/4G equipped netbook to test the service around Baltimore. The Acer Aspire One with a Sprint U300 WiMax card I used is an ideal companion for sending and receiving e-mail messages. It’s small enough to take almost everywhere but it’s large enough to act like a PC — a PC that’s always connected to a very big Wi-Fi hotspot.

Adding WiMax to a laptop may make it easier to read e-mail messages often, but the real value of the bandwidth becomes apparent when the PC does something more than just send text. VoIP software like Skype turns it into a video phone, a browser pointed at Hulu acts like a television that can fetch shows on command and there’s also GPS service for finding directions. It’s a smartphone with a normal keyboard and a very open software marketplace. All of the PC software built for the desktop also works with the small package.

The U300 attaches to any laptop, but Netbook manufacturers are offering more and more machines with built-in cards. Lenovo, for instance, will add the WiMax/Wi-Fi Link 5150 card to some of their laptops for an additional $30. Prices vary depending on the model.

WiMax is also one of the first wireless services that’s being actively marketed to people sitting on their couches at home. Xohm, the brand name originally given to Baltimore’s WiMax service (it’s now being merged into Clearwire and the Xohm brand will disappear), sells a home base station meant to compete directly with DSL or cable for $35 a month, and sometimes there is a short-term discount. A base station and a laptop card together cost $50 a month. The service options are getting complicated and the prices vary in different communities. Comcast, another investor in Clearwire, is starting a wireless service in Portland, Ore., under its own brand name. It will charge $50 a month for service within Portland that is promised to deliver downloads at a rate of 4 megabits per second.

Sprint also sells a card that offers both 4G service where WiMax is available and 3G service where Sprint’s cellphone network is all that’s there. It’s a better choice for anyone who travels outside of the cities where WiMax is appearing. Sprint charges $80 for the modem and $80 a month for the service.

The WiMax coverage in Baltimore is good but far from comprehensive. The signal blankets downtown and many of the neighborhoods, but it stops just a few blocks from my house. The cellphone tower is on one side of the hill and my house is on the other. Clearwire says that it is slowly expanding coverage but I’ve seen little change in the map over the last few months.

WiMax can also suffer from the same problems that affect all wireless services. Rain and snow absorb the signal, reducing the quality of the service during storms, an effect the industry calls “rain fade.” Trees and other plants are filled with water and can cause the same problems even when the sun is shining. Thick walls are also a challenge. Being closer to the tower is always better for service. All of these effects work together, so it’s no surprise that the maps of WiMax service show that early deployment is concentrated in the densest part of the city where trees are rare. That’s where the most people will find the best reception.

But wireless also comes with advantages. I’ve averaged about one visit from the phone or cable company every year or so because the copper wires coming to my house need their care. Both services require internal wiring that must either be fished through the walls or the baseboard. Wireless service to the home avoids these problems.

The Xohm/Clearwire base station can sit anywhere in the house and it can even be moved, but putting it on a higher floor near a window improves service. If the house isn’t near the tower, it may even help to put it on the closest side of the house where there’s no dense foliage in the path. Using the WiMax laptop card alone also works under the same conditions.

The more I used the laptop while traveling around the city, the more aware I became of the time it took Windows to start. While the Internet service may be available everywhere, it took several painful minutes for Windows to boot up. To make matters worse, the U300 card needs its own minute or so to look for a signal.

Some netbook manufacturers are experimenting with adding a simpler operating system that can start much faster than Microsoft Windows. These machines can boot up in less than 10 seconds but only by loading a lightweight operating system that offers a few basic services like a Web browser or Skype. The full version of Windows is still available if you need it. Needless to say, offering such a start-up time will change the utility of these microlaptops considerably.

Speeding the start-up time will be crucial if the netbooks want to compete with smartphones for casual use by people on the go. The bandwidth is ready to supply full-size applications that augment reality with an endless heavy stream of data. Scott Richardson, chief strategy officer of Clearwire, told me: “I did a demonstration in Portland with some computer industry guys. I was driving down a road going 60 miles per hour and I got a 14 megabits-per-second download.”

Portland came online in January of this year and Clearwire just announced that it was selling service in Atlanta and Las Vegas a few weeks ago. This isn’t the end. Clearwire says it’s on to Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C. They’re all fine cities, even if they don’t all have the same level of baseball and the same fertile source of inspiration for narrative crime dramas.