Stage of GTA03 development?

[Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman)]

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:46:54 +0100 "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller"
<hns at computer.org> babbled:

> 
> Am 18.12.2008 um 00:12 schrieb Will Siddall:
> 
> > On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:02 PM, Justyn Butler
> > <justynbutler+openmoko at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Replace the mc75i with a 3.5G modem! Go on, surprise us all!
> 
> We perhaps will be most surprised how much a 3G modem will cost...

a 3g modem/module/chipset is REALLY expensive. especially if you have low
volume (that means less than a few hundred thousand units). you pay a small
fortune in royalties too.

> >> I have to agree with Justyn and say that we need a 3G phone.  I  
> >> bought
> > this phone in hopes that I can use it when I travel around.
> > Unfortunately, when I leave the country, it just becomes a toy to play
> > around with and most of the time I have to leave it behind :(
> 
> Why that?
> 
> I don't own a 3G phone but a UMTS wireless card for my Mac.
> 
> My practical experience is:
> 
> a) in areas (urban) where you have HSDPA speed, you also have WiFi  
> hotspots
> 
> b) in all other areas (more rural) your connection falls back to GPRS  
> anyway
> 
> So, a phone that combines GPRS and WiFi is a little more difficult to  
> connect
> to the correct network but has no dramatically worse connectivity than  
> real 3G.
> 
> 2 months ago I had to run a VNC connection to my server back home  
> through GPRS.
> Slowly, but it worked.
> 
> Improving to 3G is therefore a "nice to have" for me. Not mandatory.

here is where i'd disagree. i can walk down my street in sydney - 100% of wifi
spots are locked (wep/wpa etc.) - no one opens them. yopur choice is "spotty"
wifi hotspots you have to pay for. the other option is 3g (umts/hsdpa etc.)
which has pretty good coverage most areas in urban settings - even outside. i
think there seems to be some assumption that wifi is so widespread in urban
areas (and it comes at a cost equal to or cheaper than 3g datarates). this is
not the case in australia. not to mention the datarates for 3g are MUCH less
than 2g - they give you a discount for 3g data, but for 2g, it's rap you silly
per kilobyte. why? the phone network's 2g data setup was NOT designed for heavy
data usage - it's being abused for data and that impacts call quality and the
providers will appropriately price the service based on the network ability to
provide. so 3g is reasonable. for 2g i will never pay for it as its outragoeus.

-- 
------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------
The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler)    raster at rasterman.com