G3. Was: GTA03: New case? Bigger screen!

[NeilBrown]

On Mon, June 16, 2008 5:14 am, Stroller wrote:
>
> I'm not sure what the big deal is with 3G.
>
> My misconception was that GSM was only "dial-up speed", but someone
> recently posted here stating otherwise. Someone debated with him over
> his terming GSM as having "ADSL speed", but if it's 2 or 3 times
> faster than 56k then that's fine by me. I can do all my email &
> websurfing quite happily at that speed, and since my current 3G
> mobile is painfully slow when coverage is spotty I can't see that it
> makes much difference.

My understanding -- and experience -- is that GSM/GPRS does provide
only "Dail-up speed".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRS

suggests a max of around 80kbit/sec which is a little faster than
56k, but not much.

If you have EDGE support, then that pushes it up to 236kbit, which
is almost slow-ADSL.  However it is my understanding that GTA02
doesn't support EDGE.
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Openmoko#GPRS_modem
says
  GPRS modem
  2.5G (no EDGE) access to the Internet.

>
> As I understand it GSM *does* allow you to make a digital data
> connection, and that's the important thing.
>

I agree - that is in the important thing.
I used GPRS for Internet access while traveling in the UK recently,
and while it is much better than not being connected at all, it
is a long way from being a comfortable browsing experience.

NeilBrown