| Author |
3G (why upgrade to this! sounds pointless) |
Kimi
Joined: Nov 21, 2001
Posts: 293
From: Switzerland
PM |
Quote:
| I also don't think the coverage could be any good since the country has so many mountains and remote places cell signal can't reach. |
|
I'm living in Switzerland and we really have a lot of mountains, too (60% of the country is covered by mountains) and the 3G coverage already reaches 90% of the population. So that's no excuse  ... at least from a technical standpoint. Of course it is expensive to build a suitable network. That might be the problem.
As for other aspects of 3G: I very often use it for data (via notebook in the train etc.) browsing MMS. Very rarely for videocall - that's not an killer-applications. Despite the fact, that the rates are the same as for voice, I almost never use it.
The tarifs for 3G-data are the same as for 2G or 2.5G data, and there even are reasonable flat-rate plans. So the acceptance of 3G depends on 3 reasons:
1. 3G phones available for reasonable prices
2. Reasonalbe prices for data or some flatrate-plans
3. 3G Wa/WML/HTML services that make sense
Some countries and operators do have this others don't. In some countries customers just don't care that much about all this. In the US for example SMS and MMS are rarely used - but many there are fond of PTT - which is absolutely no issue here. For me - I definitely don't want PTT, the normal calling procedure is perfectly ok. I don't see any reason for PTT to exist, but maybe I don't get the point of it - where is the advantage of that? If someone wants to contact me he can simply call me. |
|
|
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
PM |
I find 3G good for downloading music to the phone and for internet connection to laptop. Video calling is good if you can find someone with another 3G phone to call...
Alot of the 3G services are unnecessary and are simple blatant revenue gathering. 
|
altemyr
Joined: Jan 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Stockholm, Sweden
PM |
What I don't understand is why people buy a 3G phone and then immediately switches the 3G off to save battery. Turn the phone off entierly, and the battery will last even longer ! Oh, you mean you cant make phone calls when the phone's off? Well, there are certain parts of the functionality of the phone that you loose if you turn the 3G off too. There are many phones on the market without 3G but with similar functionality in other aspects (compare K800i vs. K790i, for example) and sometimes to a lower price, so why buy something that you don't use? |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
I buy camera phones but almost never take pictures with the camera
actually I rarely use the music player either
perhaps some people prefer the style of, say, the K800 over other non 3g alternatives
is it really for us to judge other peoples choices? 
|
altemyr
Joined: Jan 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Stockholm, Sweden
PM |
Quote:
|
On 2007-01-25 09:23:19, masseur wrote:
I buy camera phones but almost never take pictures with the camera
actually I rarely use the music player either
perhaps some people prefer the style of, say, the K800 over other non 3g alternatives
is it really for us to judge other peoples choices?
|
|
I can buy that argument up to a certain point. For example, my car is supposed to have a top speed of about 200 Km/h, I think, and the motorcycle I owned many years ago was able to go over 250 Km/h, but the maximum allowed speed on any public road here in Sweden where I live is far much lower, and I tend to follow the speed limits (at least almost ) for many reasons.
For telephone buyers, many people tend to be more attracted to design and coloring of the handsets than of the functionality. (I don't understand why someone would buy a K800i for that reason though, imho, it's almost ugly, even though I own one) A couple of years ago, there was an investigation made and it was a remarkably large percentage of owners of GPRS and WAP enabled phones that did not even know how to send an SMS messag. I suspect that for many people, 3G is only something that consumes the battery power and does not add any gain.
Much of this is probably due to technical reasons and that it is too difficult for some to set up everything correctly, and the only thing you can do is to pity those for what they miss. |
haruhiko
Joined: Oct 26, 2005
Posts: 2
PM |
3G is especially useful here in Hong Kong, as three has launched its unlimited web browsing and msn messenger plans, it simply rocks! |
fyrestrtr
Joined: Oct 13, 2006
Posts: 126
From: Pakistan / Kuwait
PM, WWW
|
In the Middle East; phones are bought on the following basis:
1. How new is it
2. How "pretty" (for girls) or "flashy" (for guys) is it
3. Nokia or Other
4. Arabic language support
Let me explain:
1. Telephones in the Middle East are almost always released in Dubai first. So what happens in Kuwait (and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain) is that people fly into Dubai for the weekend, grab the hottest phone from the duty free shops and fly back. They usually pay quite a premium. In my experience, the starting price for a 3G camera phone is in the $900+ range, depending on model. The newer the phone, the more desirable it is the more its value is inflated during the first week of release. i-mate JASJAM (HTC TyTn). When released: $1,400. After one week: $1,312. After two weeks: $900.
2. Girls usually go for the designer phones, guys usually go for the gaudy phones. I suppose this is normal everywhere.
3. Nokia has a stranglehold in the ME. So much so that you can't even find accessories for other brands. There are a few SE shops (1 authorized in Kuwait); compare that to Nokia that has three authorized dealers and service providers. Another reason its so popular is because it provides default Arabic support.
SMS is king here in Kuwait and also in the Middle East. There are more SMS-based services here than you can shake a stick at. I spoke once with a Nokia engineer (who was flying back to Dubai). He was in Kuwait upgrading the servers that form the backend for SMS services for one of the providers. He told me that in his experience going to countries and installing SMS hardware/software; he has never seen more widespread use of SMS than in the Middle East.
3G is available, but data rates are quite expensive. The volume is capped at 1GB on the most expensive plan. Video calling is also charged at a premium rate.
Most people don't really know that they have a phone with 3G or video calling services; all they know is, its the latest Nokia.
Of course the flip side to all this Nokia love is that you can get SE phones quite cheap here. Especially 'barely used ones'. I have witnessed it myself. I was in a shop browsing for a new phone. A guy walked in, returned his still-in-box P990. The reason? He didn't realize it didn't support Arabic. It also was not a Nokia. He just bought it 4 hours back.
The brand new all accessories -- other than the battery and travel charger were still in their wrapping; manual book was not even opened. The shopkeeper sold the P990 (used) for $100 less than the boxed one.
Gotta love it
|
JK
Joined: Feb 24, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: S. Africa - JOZI
PM |
I use 3G everyday.
|
joe_pf
Joined: Dec 09, 2006
Posts: 9
PM |
I would love having a 3g network here in El Salvador 
Hoping that someday it could become available here!
[ This Message was edited by: joe_pf on 2007-02-02 03:47 ] |
merlin002
Joined: Oct 02, 2005
Posts: 1
PM |
I'm using 3G right now Hook up your phone to a computer and surf wirelessly anywhere, but unlike GPRS, a 3G connection is much faster! |
keight00i
Joined: Feb 02, 2007
Posts: 24
From: Manila, Philippines
PM |
since i bought my k800i, i have used 3G (mostly internet) liberally... i live in manila philippines and prior to 3G technology, mobile networks here only have 2.5G service, namely GPRS... we dont have EDGE here, so a 3G rollout has been a great help for most info-hungry mobile users awating a faster, more reliable connection than GPRS.
although i must say, since 3G is relatively new here (just launched Q2 2006), service outside the metropolitan area is patchy if not absent.
[ This Message was edited by: keight00i on 2007-04-22 15:16 ] |
lovewalrus
Joined: Dec 22, 2002
Posts: 480
From: LoveWalrus
PM |
I for one think 3G is brilliant and within 4-5years wireless 3G or 4G data access will surpass home broadband connections! The only pearson i think this is because of our need for wireless internet at home, which is restricted to us being within our houses and the growin market for laptops-with the best will in the world, i can't make my Netgear router push a signal more than 100m's! Ha however, my t-mobile usb modem gives me a 1.8mb connection pretty much everywhere! :-)
This message was posted from a WAP device |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
PM |
I have a 3G Vodem which plus into a USB port on my laptop. No more landline! Yippee!
|
Horonaim
Joined: Feb 07, 2007
Posts: 329
From: PH
PM |
I also used the 3G service as my internet connection before. very good indeed. Thats probably the only thing that makes me miss my K800.
@keight
AFAIK, SMART has EDGE on their network...
Stick and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.  |
mustafabay
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Egypt
PM |
Some time this year we're getting a new mobile provider here in Egypt, Etisalat is the name like the UAE. And they're bringing HSDPA. I really could care less all I'm hoping for is better prices on everything espesially data and SMS. The current prices on our duapoly are just rediculous. And even funnier is that they are exactly the same prices from when they introduced SMS and GPRS. Actually prepaid isn't that bad off as we never got a price hike, post paid used to have data that was 33% cheaper than prepaid but now they're the same. People only really use a service when it gets cheaper which never happens. So hopefully we'll get better prices soon and be able to use everything.
I'm currently on vodafone and the accuired a 3g licence too. So how's voda when it comes to HSDPA? Is it rolling it out or no?
And I guess by next year we'll have all three operators with 3g, the gouvernment is trying to screw our other network Mobinil by trying to get them to pay for a 3g licence just to install edge. Of course with edge and base 3g being quite close in data rates and in 2009 Ericsson will be boosting edge to 1Mbps it could be reasonable if there were no HSDPA.
I don't want a signature anymore. |
|
|
Posted: 2007-01-24 09:11
