Page 12 - Sphere No.22 (Aug 2008)

3 G H O T S P O T
ILUSTRATION: BERNARD CHAU 10 SPHERE
MOBILE BROAD-
BAND is here. Af-
ter being packaged into
physical data pipes and then
transmitted at WiFi hotspots,
broadband is now available through
a mobile phone near you. And that’s
good news for customers whose days in-
volve a non-stop stream of e-mails, “google”
queries and Facebook browsing, while keep-
ing up with their friends by instant messaging.
Mobile broadband is a relatively new term
that has only recently crept into the ever-ex-
panding IT vocabulary. What it reallymeans
is that you can surf at high speeds over the
same frequency as your mobile phone. It
is extremely convenient, especially for
people on the road as it solves the
problem of finding that Ethernet
jack in a crowded coffee house.
WiFi was the previous answer
for those mobile consumers
who wanted or needed broad-
band access over the air. How-
ever, WiFi was only a partial
solution – it released you
from the need for wires, but
you still had to find a WiFi
hotspot.
Mobile broadband un-
shackles you from needing
to find the right location
since it is available wherev-
er your mobile phone works.
Setting up is a breeze – no ca-
bles, wires or unwieldy installation
menus. It is also very fast, allowing you
to zip through a 3MB music track down-
load in as little as 20 seconds. Best of all, with
GET
CONNECTED
3 Mobile Broadband, you can enjoy all these conveniences
without paying a huge bill.
Currently you have three options to use 3 Mobile
Broadband: a USB modem, PC card or your phone.
Installing a USB modem – 3’s sales are now over a
million – is as simple as plugging it into the USB in-
terface on your laptop. A PC Card is the same, except
it uses your laptop’s PCI or PCI Express slot. The
mobile phone version simply uses the phone as the
modem, while connected to your laptop, either
using Bluetooth or with a wire. This allows you
to freely receive or make calls, while speeding
through the Internet at broadband speeds.
So how fast is fast? 3 Mobile Broadband, for
example, uses HSDPA so you can achieve theo-
retical download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, al-
though typical speeds will average slightly less.
That is similar to or even faster than WiFi. No
HSDPA?Then the modem uses the available 3G or
GSM to connect to the Internet. Although 3G speeds
are a shade slower, they allow you to retrieve your e-
mails or surf your favouriteWebsites with ease.
Best of all, you only pay for what you use or down-
load. Like your mobile phone, you choose the package
you want, depending on your lifestyle. For instance, 1GB
will give you 100 hours on the Web, 50 music tracks, 50
hours of instant messaging and allow you to send 1,000
emails – enough data for an average consumer who
wants to be connected to the world.
Take Terry Harmer in Ireland, for example. “I
have tried every option for broadband,” he says.
“I learned about 3, picked up a broadband
pack from their store and it worked
immediately. I was so impressed
that I bought another one
for my wife.”
Now that’s what
you call a satisfied
customer!
Mobile broadband – it’s the future