Like at all ‘Net conferences, the folks at Le Web 3 were calling out for flat rate wireless data. Sounds great, but I don’t think most operators are prepared for flat rate data from all their customers. I think for the most part, their networks are not designed to have a ton of folks sucking bandwidth from a single cell.
Jyri Engesrtöm referred to ‘flat-rate hell’ (or something like that) – what happened to AOL when everyone started ‘getting’ online life and dialing up in droves.
As a counterpoint, Orange was the provider of wifi services for the 1000 delegates at Le Web 3. The network was really flaky (I was one of the few actually posting photos – off my N73 via GPRS). I think it was the number of base stations and all the folks trying to get on that was the problem.
Ready for that in the real world?
One other thing happened. When I finally got a stable connection with my N95 wifi, I was stuck. I am so used to wandering around when uploading or downloading stuff with my phone, that I felt trapped by the wifi. Ugh, we need wifi roaming!
See that’s the beautiful part about flat rate. The people who use the network to it’s fullest advantage, constantly, are HIGHLY outnumbered by the few who just make an occasional phone call and send a few texts.
I think the first step to carriers growing a pair is to offer unlimited MMS and SMS. Then once saturation increases due to better OTA network, unleash the hounds and turn to unlimited everything.
hm, maybe.
at the moment, the high users are far outnumbered. indeed, that’s probably how aol thought things would be with free dialup.
but, it’s unsustainable.
i think the capacity for sms and mms are much better, due to the asyncronous nature of the service.
it’s really not what formula to have for unlimited service, it’s capacity. and, yes, maybe they just need to open the spigot slowly, starting with stuff folks understand – sms and voice – then lead to data and such.
Hey Charlie, operators who know their business put in
a) enough bandwidth for their wifi network at conferences
b) ensure that a few uploaders do not cripple the downlink due to uplink congestion
c) distribute a couple of wifi acess points at the venue and link them together so you can walk around while uploading and downloading data. The mechanism is called Wireless Distribution System and your wifi enabled mobile computer happily hands off between the access points as you move around without loosing the connection.
I hope Orange learns for future events 😉