The next generation

3G offers benefits for mobile data

Third-generation (3G) mobile technology has been available in the UK for more than three years. The use of 3G in business and the public sector is rising steadily, and a growing number of organisations are increasingly recognising the benefits that mobile working can deliver.

But there is still a lot of confusion about the benefits of 3G for businesses. Most people have associated 3G with some of its consumer offerings, such as music downloads and video calling. But the potential that 3G offers in terms of mobilising businesses is tremendous.

Mobile working, remote access to applications and data and converged communications, are all improved by the high speeds that 3G offers.

Furthermore, the imminent launch of the next generation of the technology, known as HSDPA [high-speed download packet access] or 3G broadband, will give another significant boost to data transfer speeds and is likely to increase the adoption by business users.

Computing hosted a live web seminar to discuss the use of 3G in business, and took questions from delegates to our panel of experts. The three panel members were:

* Dale Vile, research director for analyst Freeform Dynamics.

* John Lillistone, head of data for enterprise at Vodafone UK.

* Fiona Lister, client services director of creative communications agency Avvio, who is a user of 3G technology.

3G has been available for three years, but many users say the coverage is still poor. What is the true state of 3G coverage and how is that going to map on to the availability of HSDPA?

JL: We don’t have 3G coverage everywhere. Vodafone is just over two years into our public rollout. We are investing huge sums of money, but we don’t have it everywhere at the moment.

Rollout is very much focused on where customers are and where they are working, and where corporate head offices and major public venues are.

3G is a new radio network and it behaves very differently. Most people are familiar with trying to get away from work at rush hour and driving out of the car park or being in a traffic jam on the motorway, seeing five bars on their mobile phone, hitting the green button to call home to say you are going to be late and receiving a message saying ‘network busy’.

That is how conventional networks behave. 3G does not work like that. As customers come on to a 3G network, the cells physically shrink, and what you can get is gaps opening between adjacent cells, and the experience you will see is five bars, four bars, three bars, no bars, and then you would go on to GPRS.

In terms of HSDPA, things are slightly simpler. It is an overlay onto 3G, so we can put it on top of our existing network and can do that relatively quickly.

What are the differences and relative benefits of 3G and WiMax? Why should our organisation enter into 3G when WiMax is not far away?

DV: There are a lot of uncertainties about WiMax; there is a lot of promise, there are a lot of potential benefits, but right now, it is really not solid enough to make any serious plans around. In the meantime, we have a lot of capability to solve those business problems and solve user needs with technologies that are available today.

The coverage of 3G isn’t perfect, but when you combine 3G and WiFi in a strategy, which is happening more and more, you get a pretty effective solution.

What are the actual download and upload speeds that users are going to be able to be reach using HSDPA/3G broadband?

JL: The technology as it stands today has a maximum limit of 1.8Mbit/s. Over the coming years that will evolve to 3.6Mbit/s, then to 7.2Mbit/s and then beyond.

Speeds will increase in a similar manner to the way broadband speeds have grown. What we are seeing from our customer trials is that the current downloading speed is on average between 700kbit/s and 1Mbit/s.

What are the security issues around using 3G and 3G broadband?

JL: The Vodafone network is essentially a large firewall; the IP address that we give users is not the IP address that is presented to the public internet.

We also recommend that if you want to be highly secure or are concerned about your traffic being intercepted, you should adopt either a private connectivity method into Vodafone, so that we can provide you with a link direct from your network to our network, and that way your traffic goes nowhere near the public internet.

Alternatively, we can provide you with a virtual private network (VPN) solution that will secure traffic through the internet.

Anybody who has a requirement to keep their information secure should realise that an open internet connection is just not good practice.

Can you use existing 3G data cards with 3G broadband technology?

JL: Currently no, but 3G cards are evolving. The first card that we launched on our 3G network would not support roaming in the US because the technology was so new. That limitation has now gone, you can take cards anywhere in the world.

Using HSDPA, the 3G broadband technology, will require you to upgrade your card, and there will be an upgrade programme in place so that anyone can take part when the service is launched in the summer.

Does home working change the working culture of an organisation?

FL: I think it is more about the individual. In my company, a lot of people feel they need to focus on watching a presentation or coming up with a cool creative idea, but sometimes it’s quite nice to work from home.

It can be a much less stressful way at times when you can solve problems, or for mothers. They have the option of working from home and it is something that they can do at anytime.

Everyone takes their laptops home, because we are a very mobile company, our laptops go everywhere with us. It has become an essential, ubiquitous tool to carry around.

What are the cost issues when comparing 3G with WiFi and potentially WiMax?

DV: For cellular technologies, there is an investment in a piece of equipment – a data card – which has a contract associated with it, be it a corporate or personal contract. There is an element of predictability.

We have seen a lot of runaway costs for WiFi, where you have more ad hoc use, people buying an hour here, four hours there, 24 hours in a hotel room, and so on.

What that really highlights is the importance of understanding that unless you put policies in place and you embrace wireless as part of your services to users, they are going to be doing it anyway and that’s going to cost you an awful lot more.

That is probably a bigger issue than how much it costs per megabyte or per minute.

What is the future of mobile marketing and the benefits to business, and what effect will 3G have on that?

FL: 3G means you can send much richer content to customers’ mobile phones. It is a direct route into an individual. It is a very rich interactive medium that marketing people can use. The more capability there is with 3G, we can deliver richer and more exciting content.

We are very aware of all the consumer content that companies are developing for 3G, but what are software companies doing to try to take advantage of 3G to deliver business applications?

DV: There are two types of activities among the software firms.

For a long time now, they have been web enabling their applications and making them available through a browser.

So far, it has been difficult to take advantage of that over a remote wireless connection, because of latency and performance issues. If you are talking about laptop devices, HSDPA makes those problems go away.

Also, most software suppliers are making tools and mechanisms available for access from small form factor devices, whether it be mobile phones, PDAs, BlackBerry or whatever.

I would anticipate a lot of rollout of that kind of technology over the next year or two. All the pilots have been conducted and we are pretty much ready to go.

Watch the web seminar online