Wireless broadband is a norm nowadays, even students have them. Here, I will explain a bit about this technology in a basic and simple way meant for the public. Experts & advanced individuals may not find anything new in this posting. Please note that all the speed rates I mentioned below are download speeds, not uploads.
GPRS (2.5G)
GPRS, which is a based on the 2G GSM technology is NOT what we call 'broadband'. But I've included this in order to help you better understand the mobile wireless evolution. GPRS may go up to 14KBps (note: the unit is in Byte, not bit - please read my previous posting on this topic to differentiate between the two), but normally you would get less than 7KBps, which is really at crawling speed. You can cry waiting for the webpage to load....
EDGE (2.75G)
Still in the 2G region, EDGE can be 4 times faster than GPRS. But in reality, it's nowhere as fast as that. I never use EDGE but I can predict it's speed to be around 20-ish KBps.
3G
This is where wireless mobile begins. Well, the speed varies due to several factors that I'm not going to mention here. But I'll just take Celcom's 3G Broadband package as a reference. The basic package offers up to 48KBps. The average speed I get is around 40KBps during daytime so I guess it's a good deal. This speed is almost at the same par as my Streamyx's basic package....
HSDPA (3.5G)
Celcom's Advance package offers up to 440KBps. I can't give any numbers on it's average speed as I never subscribed for HSDPA. But this is the fastest speed mobile telecommunication companies can offer for now in Malaysia.
WiMAX
All those G's are actually from the mobile background, while WiMAX is based on computer networks. See the difference? Both are indeed wireless technologies but from different roots. WiMAX in Malaysia can go from 50KBps to 300KBps. WiMAX should be as good as HSDPA so the 3.5G vs WiMAX battle has only begun. It's only the 1st year clash between these 2 technologies in Malaysia.
* In my next post I will explain about the coverage factor of these wireless broadbands, insya Allah.
* If you're wondering why I opted for KBps instead of Kbps, it's coz the default download ratea in your browser uses KBps instead of Kbps. Marketing people would love to promote their products in Kbps, coz everyone loves high numbers, right?
GPRS (2.5G)
GPRS, which is a based on the 2G GSM technology is NOT what we call 'broadband'. But I've included this in order to help you better understand the mobile wireless evolution. GPRS may go up to 14KBps (note: the unit is in Byte, not bit - please read my previous posting on this topic to differentiate between the two), but normally you would get less than 7KBps, which is really at crawling speed. You can cry waiting for the webpage to load....
EDGE (2.75G)
Still in the 2G region, EDGE can be 4 times faster than GPRS. But in reality, it's nowhere as fast as that. I never use EDGE but I can predict it's speed to be around 20-ish KBps.
3G
This is where wireless mobile begins. Well, the speed varies due to several factors that I'm not going to mention here. But I'll just take Celcom's 3G Broadband package as a reference. The basic package offers up to 48KBps. The average speed I get is around 40KBps during daytime so I guess it's a good deal. This speed is almost at the same par as my Streamyx's basic package....
HSDPA (3.5G)
Celcom's Advance package offers up to 440KBps. I can't give any numbers on it's average speed as I never subscribed for HSDPA. But this is the fastest speed mobile telecommunication companies can offer for now in Malaysia.
WiMAX
All those G's are actually from the mobile background, while WiMAX is based on computer networks. See the difference? Both are indeed wireless technologies but from different roots. WiMAX in Malaysia can go from 50KBps to 300KBps. WiMAX should be as good as HSDPA so the 3.5G vs WiMAX battle has only begun. It's only the 1st year clash between these 2 technologies in Malaysia.
* In my next post I will explain about the coverage factor of these wireless broadbands, insya Allah.
* If you're wondering why I opted for KBps instead of Kbps, it's coz the default download ratea in your browser uses KBps instead of Kbps. Marketing people would love to promote their products in Kbps, coz everyone loves high numbers, right?
Thanks for the advices, Micheal
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