Broadband upgrade to raise data limits for smartphones

bealtine

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/broadband-upgrade-to-raise-data-limits-for-smartphones-30644229.html

Someone got sold a porky

watty

The 2.6GHz is essentially short range with poor building penetration.

There is no reason why it should increase data limits much.

Speed will only be reasonable at "WiFi hotspot" distances. You also need a modem or phone that supports 2.6GHz.

Misleading headline and rubbish article.
This is nothing to do with Broadband.

The data limts are to limit contention at the mast so that
1) People can connect at all
2) People get a useful speed.

At a simplistic level if data limit was double, on average you might get half the speed. It's more complicated than that. But that's the general idea.

There is a separate cost problem. Unlike voice calls, every data byte has to be paid for. So the raising of data cap inceases operator costs.

bk

watty wrote: »

You also need a modem or phone that supports 2.6GHz.

In fairness, most of the LTE devices being realised this year do support 2.6. For instance the iPhone 6 does.

The iPhone 6 and many other LTE devices being realised this year also support LTE Advanced and its multi frequency and carrier bonding features.

This will certainly lead to much greater bandwidth available and should lead in time to increases in caps.

I agree that it won't happen overnight, nor will it be a replacement for fixed broadband. But it certainly will be a very welcome improvement for mobile broadband.

watty

They'd have to charge more even if there is real capacity. Any capacity increase can also be offset by increase in subscribers and more users using up cap, so don't hold your breath in longer term.