WIFI? 3G? or WIMAX? part 1
By ShockExcite Media Sdn Bhd
As we know, WiFi is now accepted as an everyday option for connectivity in the home and office environment and most notebooks, PDAs and Smartphones nowadays are WiFi enabled as a standard. We have also seen the steady growth of WiFi hotspot coverage as service providers have built out their networks.
Looking at these developments, many would argue that we have already passed the famous "anytime, anywhere wireless access" quote. Those responsible for the IT and communication strategies in businesses, however, will not always agree. They may now be deploying WiFi for local area networking, but things are a bit more complicated beyond that. Why? brand, competition, challenges.
The WiFi hotspot market has developed in a highly fragmented manner, with many different players not only in Malaysia alone, offering the services. In the early days, this created some serious coverage issues. Not only was each of the networks limited in the number of locations supported, but exclusive deals between providers and premises owners (coffee shops to begin with) meant competitors were actually blocking each other from closing coverage gaps.
Roaming agreements have improved things so far, but hunting for a compatible hotspot covered by your service agreement is still a game users often have to play. This has made many businesses reluctant to enter into contracts, so users end up accessing services on an ad hoc basis, buying an hour here, 24 hours there, or heck, they would just pop by Starbucks for the free service provided by TIME. This is both inconvenient for the user and extremely expensive for the business.
It is against this background that cellular options must be considered. Which is why operators like Maxis, Celcom and Digi introduced connectivity for notebook users around four or five years ago with GPRS. As an overlay on the existing voice network, this provides the same extensive coverage, but only delivers speeds akin to a traditional dial-up modem (or could be less..).
Nevertheless, GPRS is much more convenient than WiFi, with connectivity literally being a couple of clicks away from opening the notebook lid wherever you happen to be—none of that hunting for a compatible hotspot or messing around with credit cards or prepay credits.
Other than its limited speed making GPRS painful to use for sending and receiving email attachments and accessing the Web, The charges of usage is the killer. However the introduction of 3G a couple of years ago was the "supposed" first step towards fixing this. Based on a completely new network infrastructure, the 3G experience is somewhere between modem dial-up and entry-level broadband. Not to long ago after the official launch of 3G services in Malaysia, there came HSDPA, the latest evolution in cellular networks. This delivers three to four times the speed of 3G with significantly lower latency, which provides a much broadband-likeexperience. As an upgrade to existing 3G networks, HSDPA uses radio spectrum much more effectively and efficiently, providing better in-building coverage and unlocking 3 to 4 times more capacity from the network to minimise the chances of congestion. With no new network build required, HSDPA can be rolled out relatively quickly by mobile operators, so we can expect to see useful levels of coverage within the 2007/08 timeframe.
Regarding coverage in general, this is an important issue, but comparing WiFi and cellular can be confusing. While both have been targeted at similar geographic areas—cities, commercial areas, transport hubs, and so on—3G achieves greater effective coverage by reaching into the spaces between WiFi hotspots, including private offices, for example. The difference in coverage is even greater in sub-urban areas where hotspot density is generally relatively low. These are
considerations if connectivity is required on client sites and in other locations which are unlikely to have public WiFi access.
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