In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think Telefonica could very well be concentrating its development and budget on 4G/LTE, and will let landline broadband atrophy once that is running well.

Lol. Define 'running well'.

Referring of course to the LTE side.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think Telefonica could very well be concentrating its development and budget on 4G/LTE, and will let landline broadband atrophy once that is running well.

Lol. Define 'running well'.

Referring of course to the LTE side.

Yeah. I'm still not convinced that wireless broadband can ever be as good as wired..but it might just turn out to be good enough. Successful consumer products don't have to be the best to be a roaring success. Compact Cassettes, VHS and MP3 spring to mind there. In a sense so does the UK internet market as long as you don't define 'success' in terms of big profits I suppose.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Yeah. I'm still not convinced that wireless broadband can ever be as good as wired..but it might just turn out to be good enough.

I guess it needs:
a) To have sufficient signal strength at the current fixed not-spots
b) To have sufficient capacity to handle the number of people living there
c) To not have to contend with too many other people who don't need it to replace fixed
d) Be cheap enough.

The BBC seem to be sponsoring something about (a) in today's announcement of Crowdsourcing the UK's mobile coverage.

However, there also appears to be another effort going on at http://opensignalmaps.com/

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Yeah. I'm still not convinced that wireless broadband can ever be as good as wired..but it might just turn out to be good enough.

I guess it needs:
a) To have sufficient signal strength at the current fixed not-spots
b) To have sufficient capacity to handle the number of people living there
c) To not have to contend with too many other people who don't need it to replace fixed
d) Be cheap enough.

The BBC seem to be sponsoring something about (a) in today's announcement of Crowdsourcing the UK's mobile coverage.

However, there also appears to be another effort going on at http://opensignalmaps.com/

The problem is a) and b) are often difficult to have simultaneously, as you will naturally have more people contending the limited set of available bandwidth slices when you improve signal strength/reach of a single mast. I suppose the best technical solution would be to have many lower powered nodes so that each mast has a smaller number of people contending for bandwidth. Would be rather expensive though, I suspect.

In reply to a post by dustofnations:

I suppose the best technical solution would be to have many lower powered nodes so that each mast has a smaller number of people contending for bandwidth. Would be rather expensive though, I suspect.

That's called 'Wifi'

In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by dustofnations:

I suppose the best technical solution would be to have many lower powered nodes so that each mast has a smaller number of people contending for bandwidth. Would be rather expensive though, I suspect.

That's called 'Wifi'

Haha, I was thinking slightly better range than 'my house, and that thieving bandwidth nerd's bedroom from next door'.

In reply to a post by dustofnations:

The problem is a) and b) are often difficult to have simultaneously, as you will naturally have more people contending the limited set of available bandwidth slices when you improve signal strength/reach of a single mast. I suppose the best technical solution would be to have many lower powered nodes so that each mast has a smaller number of people contending for bandwidth. Would be rather expensive though, I suspect.

That's essentially happening today with 2100mhz 3G - on the networks with good capacity (and O2 is not one) and not overloaded in an area, the 3G/HSPA technology works extremely well.

However LTE does provide a massive improvement as it forgets voice traffic and turns everything into a data packet. Unlike 2G and 3G which handle voice separately to data today.

Ofcom seem to be waiting for the final Freeview/DigitalTerrestrialTV switchover next year to release the frequencies for LTE to all the networks. These should be low enough frequency to have quite a large coverage area from a single mast. Similar to todays 2G footprint from Voda/O2. And hopefully with sufficient in-building penetration.

Everything Everywhere has 1800mhz, and put a lot of money into getting good in building penetration by having double the sites to Voda or O2, but that still hasn't helped their 3G coverage.

3 has amazingly good 3G performance; but is pretty useless for a mobile phone due to the frequency anything on the edges of coverage ends up a blackspot indoors.

be will never get around to it (nor O2) for that matter. they dither about far too much, all talk no trousers, and they're struggling for funds

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

be will never get around to it (nor O2) for that matter. they dither about far too much, all talk no trousers, and they're struggling for funds

and you know this because ????????? it seems to me that you are talking a load of horse poo

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

... and they're struggling for funds

Evidence for that?

All I can find quickly is Telefonica current valuation of 70 billion euro, and the average investment advice is 58.7% - buy, 28.3% - hold (keep), 13% sell.