Ed’s Telecom Alert

Folks,

Did a little research myself on IPAD 2 as I wanted to purchase 2 iPAD 2 for myself and wife. I was thinking of getting the WiFi + 3G plan. The fact there is no "unlimited plan" and AT&T and Verizon only offer usage rates gave me a pause so am holding back until I hear more on this and would love to hear your thoughts/analysis.   Here is the information I have found out.  

Keep in mind that if you get WiFi product, then you do not need to worry about this.  If you plan to get WiFi + 3G product, then it could become worrisome.   Here’s why.  Before I go on, keep in mind, signing with either AT&T or Verizon does NOT lock you to a two-year term.   So you can switch to other if u think other is cheaper in the long run. 

First check out Money’s analysis the link below.

MoneyAnalysis

Quotable quotes:

"..there are a total of eight different AT&T and Verizon plans that you can choose from, each with a different set of data caps and overage charges."

Yikes..

"A data plan with a 250 megabyte cap gets you about 1,300 Web pages, 400 photo downloads, 60 songs, 14 YouTube videos, or about an hour of Netflix videos. A 1 gigabyte plan gets you 6,500 Web pages, 2,000 photos, 300 songs, 65 YouTube videos or between three and six hours of Netflix viewing."

3 to 5 hours of Netflix movie uses up 1 GB, so don’t watch too many movies using the 3G network – better with WiFi if you can find it. 

Now more to our needs.   Why not simply just stay with WiFi only?  Can do that, but the problem is if later you see 3G turning into 4G or 6G, and would be lot faster than WiFi.  WiFi product can’t change over to WiFi + 3G; that’s why they are selling separately.   Darn.   I would love just to test WiFi, and if that does not meet my need, then upgrade to WiFi + 3G.  Nope, can’t do that – at least that’s my understanding.  If me wrong, feel free to correct me.   Also, some large cities have abundance of WiFi, then the choice would be easy.  Other cities not so plentiful so choice should be WiFi + 3G product?    If you stay home all the time, then WiFi alone should suffice if u already have wireless network at home/work. 

Sorry to digress..but here are some interesting and a bit bothersome analysis.

Let’s say you want 2 GB plan for $25 a month with AT&T. 

"A video conversation consuming 320kbps in each direction – 640kbps total – will run into the 5gb cap in 18 hours 38 minutes. That’s an average of 36 minutes per day over a 31 day month."  This one is from a Convo staff’s analysis.  

To hit the 2 GB cap, it would only take 7 hours 27 minutes. That’s a little less than 15 minutes a day. Hmm  we have 30 days a month.  AT&T and Verizon must think a day equals a month. 

Now keep in mind that is for 3G product.  Also, note 320 kbps is the low end of speed; many video phones are higher like 512 kbps which means will gobble up even more memory. 

Remember if you have access to WiFi, usage won’t count against you.  

Anyway, so if you use 3G product for browsing, viewing You Tube (just watch 10 minutes of HD video clip will use up 2 GB right there), email, texting, and watching movie, you will pay a penny more than you want to.  

Minimal use of 3G, AT&T plan is better, use lot of 3G, Verizon is better with $80 a month per 10 GB.  Yike, that may still not be enough for us deafies who will use lot of video chats.  

So what do you think, folks?    Be prolific in your thoughts.   

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed

Long Link: 

MoneyAnalysis:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/11/technology/ipad_plan_cost/index.htm

Folks..

In the near future Emergency 9-1-1 to allow texting and video streaming?  It would be way cool to be able to do that.  

More Accessible 911?

Quotable quotes:

"In a bid to bring the life-saving emergency service 911 into the 21st century, the FCC is looking at letting citizens report crimes through text messages and even stream video from their mobile phones to emergency centers."

"..911 handles more than 230 million calls a year — 70 percent of which now come from mobile phones."

"It’s not clear yet where the money will come from for the upgrades, whether they will be federal requirements states and cities must carry out or if they will simply be suggestions."

I am aware that NENA is already discussing how to utilize VRS into the infrastructure of emergency dispatch’s ability to receive emergency calls.  Whether it be from VRS providers, or create a national emergency call center just for the emergency VRS calls?  What do you think, my dear friends?  

eyes open & thumbs up,

Ed

Long Link:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/fcc-911-texting/

Folks…

This is non-TRS issue, but this article is interesting and it is about the technology innovations that continually tries to sate the appetite for faster and faster-still broadband speeds.

Insatiable Hunger

Quotable quotes:

"OUR taste for the Internet is insatiable — traffic is growing so fast that its transmission systems may soon be filled to capacity. But scientists are coping, finding ingenious ways to satisfy our deep bandwidth hunger."

"A fiber is no thicker than human hair, but can carry many wavelengths of laser light, with each wavelength adding to the bits transmitted per second. The bit rates now attainable are in the billions (gigabits) per second or even trillions (terabits) per second."

"..in the new system from Alcatel-Lucent, two binary digits or bits can be encoded by using four phases of light. And the polarized light can vibrate up and down or sideways. In this way, four bits of data can be transmitted per time slot instead of one.."

I really do not fully understand the last two statements, but they look impressive and innovative.   To think that bit rates can do as much terabits per second is really mind-boggling.  

eyes open & thumbs up,
 
Ed

Insatiable Hunger Long Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/business/10novel.html

Folks..

Ed