Is Cellular the New ISP?

By: John Shepler

Internet Service Provider technology has evolved dramatically in the last few decades. It stated out as audio modems over classic landline phones. Then came broadband with DSL and Cable. Business broadband started with ADSL, T1 lines & DS3, upgraded to SONET fiber and then Ethernet over Copper and Ethernet over Fiber. Now we may be headed back to telephone technology, as 5G cellular make a move to become an accepted Internet Service Provider.

What’s 5G Got to Offer?
5G is the latest in a long line of technology evolution for wireless mobile phone service. The earliest cellular 0 and 0.5G emerged in the 1970’s, followed by 1G and 2G technologies in the 1980’s. These were voice technologies designed to make the traditional telephone set wireless and mobile. SMS messaging appeared in 2G with e-mail and simple Web browsing added with 2.5G and 2.75G.

The first mobile service that really could be called broadband Internet access was 3G, 3.5G and 3.75G. This is what supported the rise of smartphones. The next generation (G stands for generation level of technology) 4G and 4G LTE (long term evolution) made cellular broadband a real contender as an Internet Service Provider.

The latest phones with 5G are seeing Internet speeds in the dozens to hundreds of Mbps with low latency, jitter and packet loss. The millimeter wave bands support Gigabit per second service and that may be upgraded to 10 Gbps downlink and 1 Gbps uplink with 5G-Advanced upgrades.

5G vs Cable and Fiber
More and more business is being conducted on smartphones and tablets vs desktop computers and even laptops. WiFi is useful indoors to avoid burning cell usage quotas, but while mobile and at customer locations you’ll likely be connecting via 5G from your service provider. Since that applies to all of your mobile devices, the value of an Ethernet connection is limited to desktops and wired phones, with WiFi helpful in moving about in the office or at select locations, such as restaurants.

With so much computing being done via 5G, is it possible to replace everything with a 5G account that supports all your devices?

For an increasing number of consumers and small business users, the answer is yes. Replace your cable modem or fiber termination equipment with a 5G hotspot and continue using the Internet as you always have. You may not even notice a difference in performance. Let’s face it. Once you’ve got all the bandwidth you can reasonably use at one time, doubling or tripling it doesn’t make things go any faster. The limit will likely be the server at the other end that you are connecting to.

Since 5G speeds are often a couple of hundred Mbps or more, the difference between wireless, DOCSIS 3.1 cable and Ethernet over Fiber might not even be noticeable. Where the difference does show up is in your usage limit. That’s only important if you are a heavy user or a corporate operation with dozens or hundreds of users online at the same time. It’s especially true if your business applications are being run from the cloud and accessed via the Internet.

Limitations of 5G Broadband
Yes even with “unlimited” plans, you can’t hog all the bandwidth of the cellular provider all the time. The system isn’t designed for continuous uploads or download from a single customer. Bandwidth is scarce and must be shared with a multitude of users on each tower. Your provider may not drop your connection, but you might find it slowing down severely, especially during busy times, when you are using more that your fair share of capacity.

Another issue to consider is upload vs download performance.Casual web browsing and media streaming is demanding on the download side and not so much for upload. Business applications that transfer large files to and from remote servers or the cloud may well need upload bandwidth that rivals download performance. Video conferencing and telephone call centers also need both upload and download capability about equally. This is where fiber shines. Business fiber is typically symmetrical with upload and download speeds the same. This is also usually provided with no usage restrictions, something you are unlikely to find with cable and 5G.

Selecting a Service
What service works best for your business? It depends on what you are doing and how intensely you are doing it. Some companies will find that only high speed fiber optic service will meet their needs. Others will be fine with cable or 5G wireless service at a lower cost.

Another consideration is ability to connect. While fiber may offer the best performance, there may be no fiber near your rural location or you may be in a dense metro location that hasn’t been “lit” yet. Some companies have found it best to quickly connect with a 5G hotspot and use that service while waiting for fiber to be brought in over a period of weeks or longer.

If you have a need for new or expanded broadband Internet service or are simply curious if you can make a better deal, learn what business broadband options are available and suitable for your business.

iPad Jones. I’ve Got An iPad Jones

I’ve been eyeing those e-book readers ever since the Amazon Kindle appeared on the scene. There’s some appeal in being able to tote lots of books with you wherever you happen to go. But even more appealing to me is the ability to adjust font sizes so I can read without my glasses on. Plus, not having to find space on the basement shelves for more books that do little more than collect dust is a bonus. I’ve held off, though, mostly because I don’t just sit and read book after book anymore. The real-time interactive nature of the Internet is just so much more compelling. If only you could have a e-book reader that was also an Internet computer. Now THAT would be something!


(The iPad baby picture courtesy of Apple)

Enter the iPad, Steve Jobs' latest paradigm shifting device. It’s an e-book reader, for sure. But it’s also an Internet computer that lets you surf the Web, shop online, watch movies and YouTube videos, store your photos, listen to music, send and receive email, get maps, make notes, manage your contacts and calendar, and even make presentations.

Those are just the initial applications that will be provided by Apple itself. What’s even more revolutionary is that the iPad is designed to run almost 140,000 existing apps from the App Store. Where did they get all those apps so quickly? These are the same apps that have been developed for the Apple iPod Touch and iPhone. Just look at the iPad design. Is it not a much larger version of those devices?

This is part of the genius behind the iPad and why it will change society. It’s a device you didn’t know you needed but won’t be able to live without once it’s in your hands. The fact that it comes with such an incredible array of software applications right out of the gate, and with the familiar user interface of other apple mobile devices, means millions of users will know just what to do with it instinctively.

At home, we can really use something like this for sitting around the living room with the TV on. No need to balance a clunky laptop on your knees. No need to go to another room to check Twitter, email, FaceBook, RSS feeds, favorite websites or online business activities. The electronic books are a bonus. I’d want one of these just to have Safari on a device I can hold like a book.

An iPad on the go has even more advantages. It’s about the size and weight of a thin hardcover book. That means it slips into a much smaller bag or briefcase than a standard laptop computer. Connectivity is via WiFi, of course. But it also comes in a version that will run on AT&T’s 3G network for complete mobility. Apple has even negotiated special wireless rates so that you’ll pay half or less what you would for cellular broadband on a netbook or laptop aircard.

What Jobs showed at the iPad introduction and what’s on the Apple website now is surely only the beginning. There’s an SDK for developers, and you know they’ll go wild with the new tablet form factor. I’d expect apps for business to be on the shelf by the time the first iPads ship in a couple of months. It seems so perfect for outside sales of all types, medical offices, factory paperwork, engineering teams, corporate meetings, college and even high school students.

What makes the iPad perhaps less than perfect? I would like to have seen a built-in webcam for video conferencing, multitasking capability and support for Flash websites. Perhaps these things will come later. Apple already offers a dock with a full size keyboard and a connector so you can sync to other computers and load pictures from your digital camera. With as popular as this device is going to become, you know that the aftermarket companies are testing prototypes of all sorts of peripherals in their labs right now.

Oh, did I mention the pricing? It starts at $499 for the 16 GB WiFi only device and goes up to $829 for a 64 GB WiFi + 3G model that will take an extra month to become available. Drat! I want to start using one of these tonight!

T-Mobile 3G Aircard For PC and Mac

Would you like to be able to connect your laptop computer to the T-Mobile 3G mobile data network? How about free access to T-Mobile HotSpots? Ah, what you need is the T-Mobile webConnect USB Laptop Stick.

This "stick" is a wireless modem aircard with a swiveling USB connector. It plugs into a USB port on your PC or Macintosh computer. For PCs you'll need to be running Windows XP or Vista. For Macs, it's OS X 10.3.9 or higher.

An advantage of this aircard is that it gives you access to the Internet just about anywhere you can get a T-Mobile cellular signal. That's much of the U.S., although you should check the coverage maps to make sure you'll get a strong signal where you expect to be. In strong 3G signal areas, you'll be connected at speeds comparable to DSL or Cable Modems using the HSDPA protocol. In weaker areas, you'll still get EDGE 2G connectivity for broadband or near-broadband speeds.

You'll also be connected to T-Mobile WiFi HotSpots with unlimited free access. Normally you have to pay a fee to connect to these in Starbucks coffee shops, Borders Books, FedEX Kinko's Office and Print Centers and various airports and major airline clubs. But buy this aircard and data service plan and you'll get the HotSpots thrown in free.

Note that the built-in T-Mobile Connection Manager finds you the best connection for where you are, be it 2G, 3G or WiFi, and makes the connection. That greatly expands your ability to operate at broadband speeds just about everywhere.

But there's even more. The webConnect USB Laptop Stick features a built-in microSD slot that supports up to 8 GB memory cards. Use this instead of another portable flash memory drive when you are on the go.

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How Aircards Work For Mobile Computing

Broadband Internet access has become a standard utility for nearly all businesses and home office users. DSL and Cable Internet is readily available and reasonably priced for individuals. T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth, and Ethernet connections are the choice for most business locations. But what do you do when you leave the desktop environment and venture outside? Are you cast into a disconnected limbo between WiFi hotspots? How can you take your presentations, inventory access and order entry to a client's office when they all require a broadband Internet connection? For that you need a little accessory called the aircard.

An aircard or air card is a wireless modem that gives your laptop or notebook computer a 3G cellular broadband connection to the Internet. Generally, any place you can get cell phone reception you can get Internet access. Both the voice and data signals are coming from the same towers. Each cellular carrier has a certain number of channels available at each tower site. Some are assigned for voice calls. Some are assigned for broadband data. But you need a smartphone or plug-in aircard to access the data channels that supply Internet service.

Most aircards offered today are designed for 3G access, but will fall back to the slower 2.5G or 2G speeds if reception is poor or a particular tower site hasn't been upgraded for 3G. The largest carriers, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, have been in a frenzy to get their tower site base stations upgraded over the last few years. There is a booming market for 3G access, both by aircard users and also for many of the newer smartphones that have 3G access built-in. The Apple iPhone and BlackBerry Storm are just a couple of examples. Broadband service is necessary to support streaming video as well as web-enabled applications and full HTML browser surfing. You can still get by with lower speeds for email and text messaging.

Aircards are specific to a particular carrier, just like cell phones. They also require service contracts, just like cell phones. Wireless service plans for aircards are currently running around $60 a month.

There are differences in the technology used to transmit cellular broadband. Verizon Wireless aircards, Sprint PCS aircards, and Alltel aircards run CDMA networks and use a technology called EVDO. The baseline EVDO service is similar to entry level DSL and offers download speeds of around 700 Kbps with bursts up to 2.4 Mbps when the network is lightly used. The upload link is much slower, typically around 150 Kbps. This network was designed for basic Web access and video clip download. The newly upgraded EVDO Rev A networks increase cellular broadband speeds to cable modem levels of 3.1 Mbps download bursts and a faster uplink of 1.8 Mbps.

AT&T aircards use a different technology called GSM that is more of a worldwide standard. Their basic wireless broadband service is called EDGE and runs at around 250 Kbps. This is the technology used by the first Apple iPhone. But AT&T has now moved to a faster network called HSUPA that has download burst speeds up to 7.2 Mbps with uploads as fast as 2 Mbps. Typical speeds in heavily used metropolitan areas are slower that this, but equivalent to what you'll get on the EVDO networks.

So how do you get an aircard for your laptop computer? That's easy enough. You can comparison shop for aircards by model and carrier right online. In addition to being carrier-specific, there are two styles of wireless modem available. The traditional form factor is a PCMCIA card that plugs into a slot on your laptop computer. But many newer laptops are smaller and have done away with the PCMCIA slots. For those you select the USB models that simply plug-into a USB port just like a USB flash drive. Take some time to check the features of each card you are interested in. Some work only with PCs. Others support both PC and Mac. Some of the USB aircards also have a slot to install microSD memory cards so you can use them as a flash drive as well as an aircard.

Will Cell Phones Replace Laptop Computers?

The laptop computer has grown to replace the yellow legal pad as the key mobile business tool. But laptop computers may be on the way out too. They are big, heavy and power hungry. By comparison, a 7 oz. legal pad that tucks under your arm and never needs charging starts to look pretty attractive again. The move is on to find mobile processing that has the right speed and connectivity without all the heft. Could the end result actually wind up being a cell phone?

The idea of the cell phone that does everything is compelling. Most everyone is carrying a cell phone these days. That gives you voice communications for sure. But data communications has been infiltrating the cellular world for years. It started simply enough as SMS text messaging. Then came built-in email and, finally, full HTML Web browsers.

The BlackBerry device is a perfect example of a cellular phone fine-tuned for business applications. It typically sports a good size display screen and a full QWERTY keyboard located just below the screen in a chunky candybar package. The key development that made BlackBerry the darling of corporate America is the secure "push" email service offered by RIM. Most BlackBerry devices also have the ability to read Microsoft Office documents and PDF attachments to email messages.

The BlackBerry Storm advances the technology by going with a touch screen and virtual keyboard that includes tactile feedback. The idea behind the virtual keyboard is to save real estate on the phone so that it can be redeployed as a larger screen size. A bigger screen makes Web browsing and document reading easier. In fact, at screen sizes of 3 inches diagonal or so, the phone display becomes something akin to a very small computer display.

The touch screen smartphone may well be the next generation of integrated telephone-computer mobile technology. Samsung is pressing this direction with models such as the Instinct, Delve, Behold, and Glyde. LG is competing with its Vu, Shine, and Voyager models.

What has really kick-started the smartphone revolution is the ready availability of cellular broadband service. The large carriers AT&T and Verizon have been in a frenzy to upgrade their tower sites to enable broadband data speeds of typically 700 Kbps download with bursts to twice that and, in some cases, several Mbps bandwidth. That's fast enough to easily access today's business websites and use Internet-based applications. Video downloads also become practical at broadband speeds.

But some users are frustrated by having to choose between a 7 lb laptop and a 3 oz cell phone. They would really like something in-between. That's the void being filled by notebook and netbook computers. Both are much smaller than the traditional 12 to 15 inch laptop screen size - perhaps half that. They also chuck such size and weight boosting accessories as floppy drives or even CD / DVD drives. Do you really need these while out on business calls?

Some netbooks are now coming with cellular broadband connectivity built-in rather than needing a separate aircard. You buy a data only plan from the appropriate carrier and you have connectivity in your car or at a client's office. No need to search out WiFi hotspots in restaurants or hotels, the mainstay of laptop Internet service. The other coming netbook development is the touchscreen tablet form factor. These will essentially look like large smartphones. They may even have voice capability via VoIP, but you'll wind up using a headset as you'll look a bit silly holding a netbook up to your ear.

This year is likely to see a technology battle between traditional portable computers and smartphones for mobile supremacy. Right now it looks like smartphones are going to proliferate but netbook computers may as well. After all, each has its usability advantages.