High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Internet

Most business travellers need Internet access and the evidence now is that they are turning away from in-room Internet in hotels, or wireless hotspots, and favouring mobile broadband as a solution instead. The reasons are fairly compelling. Hotel Internet is expensive and not as flexible. Prepaid mobile broadband can work out cheaper and provides the flexibility of Internet access in more locations such as a cafe or the airport in addition to the hotel room.

Mark Baylis, the General Manager for SMB Products at Optus provides stats on the number of businesses taking up mobile broadband products: “based on our research, around half of all Australian small-to-medium businesses have a mobile broadband solution.”

The sales of laptops with embedded 3G mobile broadband are also on the increase by about 25% each year which further indicates the demand and the preference over alternative solutions such as wireless hotspots.

Prepaid mobile broadband starter packs are offered by all of the leading mobile broadband providers. The costs start around $49 which gives you a USB modem and some initial data. Data then can be topped up as and when it is needed.

Telstra’s Chief Executive, David Thodey, announced at the Mobile World Congress that Telstra will significantly upgrade the current Next G mobile network by the end of the year and will make use of 4G technology.

The new technology will provide faster data speeds, access to high quality video conferencing and faster response times. It will also help to satisfy the growing demand for mobile data that is happening as a result of the huge takeup of devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The 4G upgrade will be installed in central business districts and some regional areas by the end of 2011. It is likely that the first access will be via a new USB modem which will have the ability to use the 4G technology and also 3G where 4G is not available. It‘s not known how long it will be before handsets will be able to access 4G but Telstra are in talks with handset makers. It’s likely that Apple will be slow off the mark to support 4G so iPhone users may have to wait some time.

New research from Ovum suggests that by 2015 half of the world’s population will have access to high speed Internet. What’s probably more interesting is that out of these people about 1 billion, which is about 28% of all mobile broadband users, will access the Internet via a mobile broadband connection only. They won’t use any form of fixed line connection. The majority of Internet users will use a combination of fixed line and mobile Internet.

The largest contributors to mobile-only Internet subscribers will be countries which have a lack of fixed line infrastructure. They also have to have access to affordable devices for mobile Internet such as smartphones or small tablet computers plus a capable mobile broadband network. Regions which fulfil this criteria are Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and South and Central America. Huge take up of mobile broadband only Internet subscription is likely to be in the Asia-Pacific.

This is a handy video put out by Vodafone to give a brief overview of their Pocket Wi-Fi product and show you how to set it up and connect quickly and easily.

The Pocket Wi-Fi is a portable wi-fi hotspot. It lets you connect up to 5 devices using one mobile broadband plan. This can be very useful given that it’s common to carry multiple devices whilst on the move. If you have a smartphone, laptop and maybe a tablet such as an iPad, then all of these devices can be connected to the Internet via wi-fi with the pocket wi-fi. It can also be a very easy way to set up a wireless hotspot in the home to have multiple devices connected to the Internet with one mobile broadband plan.

All of the main Australian carriers have a wi-fi modem offering. Telstra recently put out a similar product. The Vodafone Pocket Wi-Fi is easy to use because it has a great LED display giving clear information such as the signal strength, remaining battery life, how much data has been used in the session, number of devices connected etc.

The Pocket Wi-Fi is available with many of the Vodafone 12 and 24 month plans for zero cost upfront. You can also purchase it for $119 up front and get 1GB of data included in the purchase price.

Telecommunications companies are consistently criticised for the excessively high charges applied to mobile roaming internationally. This applies to costs for making phone calls and also costs incurred when downloading data from overseas if you need to check email or access the Internet.

In a move to provide better value, Vodafone are offering reduced International roaming rates to a couple of popular destinations, New Zealand and Singapore. Mobile customers get cheaper calls when using the new Vodafone Traveller service. Also, postpaid mobile broadband customers will be charged the reduced rate of $2 per megabyte for data when in New Zealand from 4 November to 9 February. This rate is still fairly expensive but at least it’s a move in the right direction.

Over the last few days there has been some commentary from prominent figures in the global telecommunications arena on whether the future for Australian broadband should be focused on a wired network or wireless broadband.

Blair Levin was the leading architect in the US version of the NBN, the National Broadband Plan and voices his opinion on why The NBN for Australia may not be the best approach to satisfying our broadband requirements in Australia when wireless broadband is the future.

Ziggy Switkowski, previous CEO of Telstra, weighs in on the debate on fixed line versus wireless with the opinion that the demand for bandwidth is growing faster than the capacity of the 3G wireless spectrum which will drive up wireless costs and keep bandwidth hungry applications on a fixed, wired network with wireless for when we are mobile.

The argument for wireless broadband from Blair Levin centres around the premise that over the next 10 years the changes in mobile Internet will be the biggest driver of growth in the economy and all sorts of industries will find new, innovative ways to capitalise on wireless broadband. In light of this, the focus on delivering a wired network seems out of date with what is really needed which, according to Levin, is an ecosystem of networks, devices and applications not a rigid percentage based goal of 93% fibre and 7% wireless for example.

The argument isn’t that simple in Australia according to Ziggy Switkowski. He has no doubt about the demand for mobile broadband and has some interesting observations on what the future may look like. 5 years ago a poll shoed that we don’t leave home without keys, our wallet and a mobile phone. Within the next 10 years the rapid evolution of smartphones will probably mean that one device can incorporate many more functions and act as a credit card, key etc with a personal id being able to facilitate eftpos like transactions. The 26 million mobile phones in Australia will be replaced with smartphones over the next decade. However, Ziggy doesn’t see wireless as a competitor to fixed broadband given the limitations on 3G spectrum capacity and possible increase in costs for wireless broadband. His opinion is that applications which use a large amount of data such as video-conferencing, internet-HD-3D television, movie downloads and telemedicine will generally be on a fixed network. When we leave home, or the office that is when we will require wireless broadband to complement the wired network not replace it altogether.

Vodafone and 3 Mobile have announced plans to merge their current network assets into a single network. This follows the merger of 3 and Vodafone into one company, VHA, which happened last year. The network merger and expansion will happen in 2011 and in 2012 3 Mobile and Telstra will end their network sharing arrangement.

The VHA merged network promises to deliver a better experience for customers with improved speeds, better coverage and support for increasing levels of data usage. Nigel Dews, the CEO of VHA says that it will support the next phase of mobile broadband and in particular the huge growth in the new devices accessing mobile broadband such as smartphones and tablet computers.

“Our continued investment is aimed at supporting the next phase of the mobile revolution. Data growth on our networks is exploding, particularly with more and more customers using multiple mobile devices like smartphones and iPads,” said Dews. “And we will do this in the most cost effective way we can, so that we can continue to deliver great value to our customers.”

The planned network expansion includes more sites on a 850MHz network which will deliver better in building coverage. More sites are also planned for both regional and urban areas deepening the mobile broadband coverage offered by Vodafone and 3.

Wireless Broadband usage is on the increase according to the latest Internet Activity Survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The number of active wireless broadband subscribers was up by a huge 21.7% from December 2009. These figures are for the period to the end of June. The total number of mobile broadband users is 3.5 million. This number includes anyone accessing the Internet with a USB modem or embedded wireless in laptops. It doesn’t include Internet access from a mobile phone.

Apart from the fact that mobile broadband is hot at the moment, the report also highlighted that Internet access in Australia is getting faster. 71% of Internet connections offered a speed of 1.5Mbps or greater. There are still some dial-up users around but 92% of users have a much faster connection. Looking at mobile broadband, Telstra have the fastest wireless broadband network in the world.

In terms of how we use the different types of Internet connection, wireless broadband users download a lot less data. The percentage of wireless broadband subscribers is just under a third of all subscribers but the data consumption from wireless broadband connections is less than 10%. This makes sense if you consider that people are mostly using mobile broadband when they are on the move so it isn’t likely to be a constant, heavy usage activity. The report doesn’t identify individuals who have both fixed line DSL and mobile broadband.

Here’s an overview of the best wireless broadband plans.

Optus has seen a huge growth of 240% in mobile broadband customers over the last 12 months and a growth in 3G services of 43%. On the back of this, Optus has agreed to purchase additional 3G spectrum which, if approved, will double the spectrum available for mobile services in capital cities.The deal is subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).The managing director of Optus Products and Delivery, Andrew Buay, said Optus would use the additional spectrum “to support retail and wholesale customer demand for Optus’ increasing range of data services.”
Optus has seen a huge growth of 240% in mobile broadband customers over the last 12 months and a growth in 3G services of 43%. On the back of this, Optus has agreed to purchase additional 3G spectrum which, if approved, will double the spectrum available for mobile services in capital cities.

The deal is subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The managing director of Optus Products and Delivery, Andrew Buay, said Optus would use the additional spectrum “to support retail and wholesale customer demand for Optus’ increasing range of data services.”

A 3G capable Skype for iPhone app is on the horizon according to Skype representative Peter Parkes and posted on the Skype blog.

It’s thanks to the iPad as Apple have updated the Software Development Kit for the new iPad which removes restrictions on making VOIP calls over 3G mobile broadband.

The app isn’t available just yet. Skype are holding out until they can deliver the best audio quality.

As for Skype for iPad we’ll be hearing about that “in due course”.