Readers' Comments

Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 19 June 2001
Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.


From: Dominic
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: GPRS: I heard of this

I have friends that work in the Vodafone industry. I heard
that Vodafone is considering to offer an "All you can eat"
package for those that use GPRS for the first time.

According to my friends, for $50, you can have 2 months
unlimited use of GPRS. The idea is to help customers get an
idea of how they will use it, and what the theoretical
spend is for that use. Then, at the end of the 2 months,
users will know:

a) if they liked GPRS.
b) how to use it so they don't spend too much.
c) what they can and can't do.

Seems attractive to me.
The other thing is handset type. Not all GPRS capable
phones can support the highest transfer speeds that may be
available on the VF network. I learned of that from the
Web, not my mates.

As for the speeds, I am told that 20k is what to expect.
Triallers have experienced as much as 56k, but that speed
was due the time of use and the condition of network at the
time.

I'm told that it will take 2 years or more before GPRS's
full potential is reached; that is, we get the speeds of
56k or more.




From: Rob
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: netmemory yes i have it

the thing i remember most and it was far worse than the $10/meg for
traffic, was the $100 per meg for email.

lucky spam was not so prolific back then




From: Hamish MacEwan
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Wireless Data

We've had this shock before when Cellular Digital Packet
Data (CDPD) was first being launched.  The notion of a go
anywhere/no hassle connectivity was a network manager with
dial-up novices dream, until the pricing arose, and then it
was out of the question.

As for anticipating a drop in price,
(http://www.telecom.co.nz/merc/cda/content/wireless_level_2/1,1880,200263,00.html?MS_ID=3)
after a few years, either costs have remained the same, or
there's no economies of scale to pass on and it's $25/meg
(1M/mo) down to $6.5/meg (10M/mo), though over cap, $10/meg.

I've been wondering when the whole 3G "broadband to your
pocket" was going to get the pricing wake-up call, well here
it is.  The telcos, in an orgy of retrieving "last mile"
monopolies and the glut of cellular growth driven by pre-pay
and SMS text messaging, have to retrieve it from your wallet
some how...

i-Mode, is slow, cheap, compact and works for millions of
Japanese, all the rest, hmmm, we'll see.




From: Mike W
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: $30/Mbyte - compare other mobile data

If I make a GSM circuit switched data call at 9600 b/s, it
would take about quarter of an hour to shift a Mbyte
(assuming I was transmitting constantly at full speed). My
plan is $1 per minute, that's $15 per Mbyte! And if I'm
using it to send and receive e-mails (or browsing), I'd
expect GPRS to close the gap, because I wouldn't be paying
for the silent periods between bursts. So maybe it isn't
that much extra?

And consider text messages - 20c for 160 bytes - that's
$1250 per Mbyte! And you can't say that hasn't been
successful!
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