That tends to be a consequence of the higher bands, ie 1900/2100. 850/900 fare better. Is one of the latter available to you?

I don't even know but that isn't the problem actually. Step outside to use the phone but it isn't a strong signal. It was the same when I lived in a major suburban area and even the top floor of an apartment. They seem to go out of their way to *not* cover residential areas so that people like me won't give up the landline. Well I don't have either because of the how the plans are structured here. I prefer to live away from highways and major arteries but I'm certainly not in a rural area. My DIY SIP system is much more cost effective, gives me all the convenience and multi phone capabilities of a landline, cordless, and a cell (WiFI). This is why I'm curious about WiMAX or anything that gives me simple data like WiFI but with longer range coverage.


Bell and the boys are not going to easily give up their gold mine or make it easy for someone new to get on the towers with a potentially competing system.

My hope is that WiMAX/4G comes and I can get the service like I do with any wired internet service, i.e. simple and cheap while using my own device. And that is "why WiMAX is such a big deal".

Coming to cellular providers and contracts. India has a wonderful mobile system. FIrst of all there are NO contracts!! AND NO suBSIDIES!

And then there is prepaid cards where you just buy a certain denomination of money and then use it as long as you want. ANd they are pretty cheap.

1usd = 40 rupees. You get a minute for each rupee and incoming is free all the time.

The US has to learn something from here!!

And maybe 10 years after that happens Canada will learn. Actually neither will learn the lessons, they will join the planet after a lot of kicking and screaming. But as long as DIY'rs like me are a small market they won't care much to get my business back.

We probably need to see this by market type.
In Europe, mobile operators are moving to HSDPA and later to LTE (Long Term Evolution = 4G). With this move they try to enter the fixed operator market. However, fixed operators are betting in Wimax (802.16e) as it will allow them to enter the mobile market. And in 2010 with 802.16m (Wimax evolution) the performance (including the latency) of WiMax will be close to the LTE specs. This means that by 2010 we will have a true convengence where mobile operators will compete with fixed operators and vice versa.

In developing countries like India, where there is not much copper arround, WiMax has a clear advantage because it allows fixed operators to provide broadband in short time at low cost (no need to deploy copper/fibber).

The main problem in Europe with HSDPA/LTE is the roaming costs. For example in France I have a 3G pack that is very competive IF I connect in France, but if I move 300Km into a neibouring country it is far too expensive to use data in 3G (this is why I use mostly the N800 with WiFi. In Europe most cities have free wifi).

The main problem for me is that there are several frequency ranges both for HSDPA/LTE and for WiMax:

HSDPA/LTE:
2100 MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 700MHz, 450MHz (Europe, Asia)
1700MHz, 2100MHz, 700MHz,... (USA)

WiMax: 2.3GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.5GHz (depending if you are in Europe, USA or Asia)

Many mobile phones support quad-band, and I think that the N800 WiMax should support the 3 existing WiMax bands to really compete with the mobile world. That would give real Internet everywhere with WiMax.

Today N810 WiMax is only available in US, with means that probably only supports the US WiMax range. I hope that the N8x0 (next itt) will support the 3 standards...

Sure that would be great except that Canada doesn't allow tethering and/or charges a rate of 5 cents per KB of data transfered using tethered device and non Rogers certified phones. (IE: Anything but WAP data)

makes me ponder how spoiled i am here in norway, as my current operator (telenor) have a pricing of 12,50nok pr MB (combined upload and download, tho) or about 2,21cad if im doing the math right.

there is also a roof of 75nok pr day, or 13,31cad...

i could, if i feel the need, slap on a 499nok/88,53cad option that would allow me free use of the mobile phone as a internet connection (within "reasonable" limits probably).

or if one wants the numbers in usd or euro:

pr MB: €1,70/$2,17
a day: €8,23/$10,48
option: €54,73/$69,72

Your rates actually look rather expensive to me. Here are some of the better rates available in the UK:

Pay As You Go - Pop an "Asda Mobile" SIM card in your phone or USB modem and pay a flat 20 pence per megabyte. That's 25 Euro cents per megabyte, or 32 US cents per megabyte.

Daily cap - T-mobile has the best deals here, £1 per day (up to 40 megabytes), or £2 per day (up to 100 megabytes). Strictly speaking, you can't use the £1 rate to tether a "computer" to a phone, although the staff at my local T-mobile store didn't think the N800 counted as a "computer". That's 1.26 Euros or US $1.62 for 40 megabytes, and 2.53 Euros or US $3.25 for 100 megabytes.

Monthly - Typically £15 to £20 for 3 Gigabytes, although there are a lot of different monthly deals according to whether you already have a monthly voice contract, whether you are using the phone or a USB stick as your modem, and whether an N800 counts as a "computer". That's 19 to 26 Euros, or US $24 to $33.

Something really good about T-mobile is that they don't charge extra for going over a limit. If you regularly go over the limit, they will eventually tell you to move to a more expensive plan, but there's no chance of accidentally incurring a thousand-dollar bill.

Regards,
Roger

Keep in mind this is about T-Mobile UK. In other countries the service of T-Mobile differs.

Also, in Europe, WiMAX is very much welcome! More competition with current 3G telcos is good for the market.

heh, im not surprised that there are places in the world that data traffic pr the mobile network is cheaper then norway.