Cell phone mania forces scramble for more airwaves

[datainmotion]

Cell phone mania forces scramble for more airwaves - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – Wireless devices such as Apple's iPhone are transforming the way we go online, making it possible to look up driving directions, find the nearest coffee shop and update Facebook on the go. All this has a price — in airwaves.

 

[KK4HG]

Here we go again...

 

[Astrak]

LOL seems like it applies more to AT&T than any other. I use regularly more than 5GB a month on Sprint, they don't complain. That's Wifi sharing on my phone, using a ROM that uses GPS/A constantly and other WinMo apps such as WIN500, facebook and southparkstudios.com all of the time and I can't complain it works great.

 

[jleverin]

Why the heck do they need more airwave space? Most of the people I see around me don't even TALK on the darned phone anymore, all they do is sit around and TEXT each other all the time!

 

[kc7mwp]

Not enuff bandwidth

]Why the heck do they need more airwave space? Most of the people I see around me don't even TALK on the darned phone anymore, all they do is sit around and TEXT each other all the time![

I think you answered your own question. Talking on the phone only uses a certain amount of space. Throw the other stuff in and it goes up, they text, use it instead of a free GPS, send pix of whatever. All of that takes up more space than talking.

 

[talkpair]

I thought at&t and verizon were successful bidders in the FCC spectrum auction last year......This auction sold part of the spectrum vacated by analog television.

I also thought the original idea of 'cell' service, was that once a cell became loaded, it was divided into smaller cells, and existing frequencies were reused.

Text messages should use next to nothing in the way of bandwidth......unlike voice, text messages can be delayed to give their voice services priority.

This is all probably just an industry response to general service complaints that have nothing to do with bandwidth at all.

Even with new spectrum, it would seem to me that in order for their customers to use it, they would need new phones capable of utilizing it.

 

[N_Jay]

. . .
Even with new spectrum, it would seem to me that in order for their customers to use it, they would need new phones capable of utilizing it.

What do you think all those 3G,Web-Surfing, Video-Playing, Aplicationd-Downloading, Location-Finding, Internet-Teathering phones are all about?

 

[KE0SKN]

Watch-out Guys!!! Our Band plan might be coming under fire by these guys.

 

[slicerwizard]

]Talking on the phone only uses a certain amount of space. Throw the other stuff in and it goes up, they text, use it instead of a free GPS, send pix of whatever. All of that takes up more space than talking.

Clearly, you have no idea how much "space" voice comms use. Voice uses far more capacity than text or GPS apps. Let's see - a couple of minutes of voice traffic or a hundred Twitters? Or a couple of camera pics? Tough call - not.

 

[poltergeisty]

Victim Of Their Own Success?

Gee, I guess C-block has no meaning.

At least your IMs are fine... they ride with the control channel.. The evil nickel and dime wars...

 

[shaft]

There's only so many 1's and 0's you can fit on the transport circuit feeding a cell site. Adding more "airwaves" isnt going to solve their capacity problem.

 

[N_Jay]

There's only so many 1's and 0's you can fit on the transport circuit feeding a cell site. Adding more "airwaves" isnt going to solve their capacity problem.

Is this an attempt at humor, or do you really think the backhaul is the bottleneck?

 

[radiofan1]

With IP backhaul to the cell site, you have access to 100mbs times how many IP circuits you bring to the site. Bottleneck?

 

[N_Jay]

PCS voice channels are 1.25 MHz wide. ATT data channels are 5 MHz wide.

Yes, but data throughput is what matters and fiber links go into the GB,and microwave links can be 30 or more MHz wide.