Less is more?
If you’re like me then you have become accustomed to being in touch. Total contact “24/7/365″ as we say these days….well I don’t actually say that at all….but I do say “no peace for the wicked”…. or you might just prefer to say “in touch whenever you want”.
Mobile telephony is a given and for most of the time and like all change, I guess it is one of the proverbial pains in the butt. On balance though, and I wouldn’t go back we generally do accept that for us to get the good things, we must put up with the bad and oft times the “old mobile” comes-in really handy. In fact having that mobile on hand and working – sigh of relief, can quite literally be a life saver!
I have become so used to “login-in” countless times a day to check on my mail. Being able to go online and check something or to research this and that (Isn’t that checking on something.. No, research is way much more important!) so much so, that it has become a way of life. Write a few lines – watch the telly — write a bit more — adjust one of the websites — watch the telly. Its really hard I’m telling you!
This is all very lovely but it ties me to the house and what I really want to do, is do it all whilst I’m travelling! Hurrah!!! Life on the road, the wind in my hair. well not the wind bit, I hate wind. I have enough wind to conte… well moving on!
I would feel very lost if I couldn’t knock out a few lines every now and then or check on my bank balance for example… oh to see all those zeros lining up! Don’t you just love red?………… Why, I might even post an article to my blog – cos wonders never cease and I will be so inspired – won’t I?……….. If I don’t post to my blog my reader will miss me. OK, your loss!
We all know about Wi Fi = Wireless Broadband – just like we have at home. Like we might have our PC hard-wired to the phone (via the modem of course) cos it works better that way BUT we can get it to work wirelessly if we want……… But to be totally free to roam and work anywhere we need a computer – brilliant – I’ve got one, and an internet connection. (no problem – hotspots – free Wi Fi – internet cafes – need an inflexion thingy over the e in cafes – need a new keyboard with inflexion thingies.)
OK – yes of course you can take the laptop on the road and get mobile internet – yes of course you can. And you have a web enabled phone to be able to do the contact and email stuff – easy peasey Yes? No. That’s not freedom, that’s tied to towns and cities… that means working where and when you can and not when ever you want/need to. I want total broadband freedom, totally wireless mobile internet – I am not a number!!!!
Yes you can! You tether your laptop to your smartphone and hey presto – internet! Oh yeah, I suppose that is the sensible way. but I remember doing that 10 years ago and good old brother in law sent me his holiday pics. Cost me 15 quid to download em!
I think things have moved on a bit since then and my God you were vanguarding it with your 7.5kbs or whatever it was!
Now you can get a laptop with the 3G built-in and the antennae integral as well! No!! Really!! How much is that?
It is reported that soon, and in this technical age I suppose they mean tomorrow, we will be accessing more internet wirelessly than we currently do via the phone network, modems, broadband, fibre or what have you.
Ok, I know all that but the question is: How much will it cost to run it all on the hoof!
I have monitored the home broadband usage on the one machine that I use to work with as well as stream the TV (sometimes even at the same time – whey!!! …. but that’s on a good day cos mostly it’s rubbish – good ole B.T. Anyway… I figure that takes about 150GBs per month. So lets add something for the laptop that we also run, say another 50% and I reckon we use about 225GBs a month. Now, what would 250GBs of mobile broadband cost by comparison? I pay BT £60 a month on a DD for the landline and broadband but let say and with a bit more prudence etc we ought to be able to get it down to 45 quid or so a month. Our mobile phones are separate “pay and you go” jobs and we don’t do a lot of mobile calling right now but I need to factor them into the equation so how much a month to run the lot mobile?
How much does 250GBs or mobile broadband cost?
Well at the time of writing I haven’t found too many providers who are even willing to consider offering a package that can provide 250GBs a month! Not too many indeed, well in fact just one “The 3g-Network” who seem to be promising unlimited, uncapped, no far usage policy, in fact they say all the data you can eat for 25 quid a month. That seems to be the one and although I have been told it’s great I do not, as yet, have any first hand experience of it nor am I aware of what happens if you take the thing abroad etc.
Total freedom to roam is next on my list but for now and in the UK at any rate it seems that “The 3G Network has it. and no I’m not paid to write about them nor do I get a commission to sign people up, Google them yourself if you like!
They seem to be the only people that understand the amount of data that gets used once one really tries to go truly “mobile internet” and that 25 quid gets me mobile voice calls and texts s as well so add 10 quid “pay as you go” for the 2nd mobile and for 35 quid or less I am landline free Apart from the fact that landline broadband ought to be better than a “mobile network connection” I am making a saving as well!
“What is mobile internet” – well I wrote a piece on my other blog about Kindle and that might help to explain things to anyone un-initiated so here’s that link to that “TheInfoChief”
Expained:
3G stands for third generation of wireless technologies, high speed data transmission including video on devices like computers as well as cell phones wth an ability to send and receive video calls. Some providers can offer download speeds measured in Mega Bytes whereas earlier technologies had lower speeds in the Kilobyte per second range.
4G stands for fourth generation of wireless technologies, even higher speeds of broadband like data transmission including video on devices like computers as well as cell phones. Speeds of many MB per second are promised but actual speeds will depend on the operators concerned. 4G technology would allow broadband in the home for example without the need for cabling like a landline or fibre optics.
Wi Fi is the more standard wireless WLAN broadband modem device such as you may already have at home or that is made available in area Hotspots for open access.
As with all new technologies the infrastructure is rolled out so reception is not available in areas until providers install the infrastructures neccessary to be able to receive service
(1G was analogue system, 2G digital handsets used a few years ago, with 2.5G representing handsets with data capabilities over GPRS).
Certainly providers seem to be a bit reluctant/slow to give us the big data plans that would enable us to go totally wirelessly-mobile. Why is that?
Probably because they are not ready with enough capability to open up these possibilities in the fear that we might actually use it.
Means they have got to put in the investment up front whilst I am sure they would prefer to promise us a lot, charge us a lot but then cap our usage so that we are unable to use what we are paying for. Brilliant! Charge us for a capability that we cannot use until they have enough of our money to be able to give us what we thought we were buying. Cynical? You bet.
Are they being short sighted? You bet. One thing’s for certain in this world – if you are not ahead of the wave you will be swept away:-
Hellooooo MySpace!
