Unofficial poll: Do you want 3G in the proposed successor, GTA03?

[Justyn Butler]

In the time since Openmoko originally announced it's phone without 3G
support and now, as the Freerunner is approaching release, it has
become more of an issue that it does not have 3G (how much of an issue
we can debate, certainly).

So please, *please* bear in mind that when talking about the next
generation of Moko hardware, it's not merely the state of things now
that we are concerned about.

Will it be embarrassing if yet again Openmoko trails in the
communications capabilities of it's device (compared to proprietary
smartphones)?

I really feel that the next generation should support HSDPA (sometimes
called 3.5G). It does not have support in all countries but almost
every new smartphone coming out supports it because there are plenty
of countries that *do* offer it.

In the UK T-Mobile now bundles 3G and HSDPA together in it's web n
walk (unlimited data) packages - you don't get them in separate price
plans.

And lastly please bear in mind that a HSDPA modem still supports 3G,
GPRS, GSM etc so nobody misses out.

Justyn.


On 07/04/2008, Mikko Rauhala <mjrauhal at cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
> On ma, 2008-04-07 at 14:00 +0200, Federico Lorenzi wrote:
>  > First off, this is by no means official in any way. Vote on [1] if you
>  > _think_ 3G is essential for a successor to FreeRunner
>
>
> Interesting choice of words; this discourages everyone who doesn't think
>  3G is essential from voting, even though the vote itself has other
>  choices. :]
>
>  Personally, for my two cents, for the successor it pretty much is
>  essential. I will buy at least one if not two Freerunners into my family
>  (having already one 1973). The GPRS will provide basic connectivity well
>  enough; having a slow net is infinitely better than none at all.
>
>  For the successor to be an attractive enough _upgrade_ to that, it'll
>  pretty much have to have 3G (UMTS). EDGE, not really worth it, unless
>  it's somehow a lot sexier in other ways. And there is the thing that
>  they're already starting to talk about running down the 2G networks here
>  in Finland... (Sure, it'll be just talk for years, but anyway, for
>  confidence in longevity and all that jazz.) Oh yeah, in light of what
>  they're talking about replacing it in rural areas, 900 MHz support for
>  UMTS would be nice as well ;P
>
>  Now, for HSDPA, it isn't really essential (though obviously _nice_).
>  Basic old-school 384k UMTS would be quite an okay tradeoff.
>
>  Anyway, for now, still anxious for the Freerunner. Cheerio.
>
>
>  --
>  Mikko Rauhala <mjrauhal at cc.helsinki.fi>
>  University of Helsinki
>
>
>
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