3G, etc. - is the Neo 1973 already out of date?

Robert Michel openmoko at robertmichel.de
Fri Dec 8 03:49:30 CET 2006


Salve Ben!

No topic for Germany:
http://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/media/archive/5278.pdf
Page 77, in 2005 has been in Germany an agreement that
all frequenz holder can use the GSM frequencies until
31. December 2016.

On Fri, 08 Dec 2006, Ben wrote:
> "And just this week, the Australian Federal Police specified  that any
> new handsets it purchases for its mobile phone fleet must be 3G
> capable."
> ...

This is interesting, but for starting OpenMoko a GSM phone
is IMHO better then a pure 3G phone. And don't worry,
FIC will ship it for you to australia and the question for
you as Neo1973 owner is not that now every new phone must be
3G capable - the question would be how long will australia
will use GSM.
And I can't imagine that they will switch it off before 2012¹.


> WiMax is due to come out some time soon.
And there is alread Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, PMR, DMR...

> Would there be any possibility of swapping modules on the Neo 1973, or
> should we just treat it as disposable and hope for multiple OpenMoko
> options instead?
This could be an idea for the >= v2 but not every owner would
upgrade, so the upgrade modules become expensive - probably
better to sell your old phone and buy a new one.

> It may be worth having two phones as an initial release - to
> demonstrate the versatility of OpenMoko - ie. one more
> budget/multimedia orientated, one more professional, GPS, 
> etc. or with
GPS isn't soo expensive 
> optional add-ons. I realise this would require a lot of extra effort,
but two desings would rise the costs...

> but I'm just trying to think of ways to separate the idea of OpenMoko
> from the Neo 1973.
> 
> Given the mass of wireless network standards, a multifunction radio or
> swappable radio would be of great benefit, unless the Neo 1973 is
> fairly cheap, as it would need to be replaced (or already needs to be
> replaced).
Why? For getting the assisted GPS data GPRS is good enough,
for jabber, email webbrowsing... is GPRS good enough.

For ideas that I have for OpenMoko (and what I like to add) 
GSM/GPRS is good enough.
For the smartphone box seller would the Neo1973 looks like
out of date (no G3, no camera...) but remember the power of
OpenMoko/Neo1973 is not just some facts out of the normal
mobile adverticement.

Maybe this mail from me looks like an antagonism to 
"imagine to add..." - no not realy, I wanted to motivate
Sean/FIC to add e.g one SPI connection on the board to
be able to do modifications...

But just this "Preliminary Specification" is in my eyes,
good enough to have a device with high potential:
http://www.openmoko.com/press/index.html 
>= v2 could have G3 and more...
And a modulare system could be an idea for later versions,
but remember what a CF GSM, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth card costs.
A FPGA in the middle of the device could support such a
modulare concept. (>= v2).

¹Maybe someone else find detailed information about the
GSM network in australia - not before 2012 is just
my guess...

;)
Greetings,
rob




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