Roll On LTE and The Introduction Of Truly Mobile Content Services

I finally got the Froyo upgrade to the HTC Desire mobile that I am using. After all the hype, and waiting, it was actually rather a disappointment. Sure it’s good, and it gives me access to the latest Android firmware features and all of the applications in the Android Market Place that require Android 2.2, but all in all my phone is still pretty much the same. Sure I can now use Google Voice Actions through the Google Search application but to be honest speaking into your handset to start a call makes you look as though you are slightly demented. It’s akin to using a hands free kit while walking down the street! It just doesn’t look right having a conversation to yourself! Also after the voice action is misinterpreted such that getting directions to your post code, which ends in ‘1X’ actually has you driving to a location that ends ‘IN HEX’ the novelty wears off pretty quickly! ;-) That being said Hexadecimal directions add a little bit of a challenge to what is usually a standard drive home!

So although great to have the latest Android update for the phone, all in all a little bit over hyped. That being said there is one slightly less obvious feature that I really think can become a game changer for mobile carriers. This is the tethering support, that I am very surprised my mobile network has not turned off. Given how many 3G dongles that are sold on the network. If you have the HTC Desire, there is now no need to pay for a 3G dongle for your PC as well. Simply hook up your Desire to your PC via a USB cable and bingo, you are on network. Even better HTC have added a WiFi Hotspot application that allows you to tether your PC, or other mobile, via WiFi. This is very cool indeed and just what is needed. At work the mobile network that I have my iPhone on has almost zero reception. Now I can use it via WiFi on the mobile network that the HTC Desire that I am using is on! OK so its overkill but I think it demonstrates a point.

With LTE slowly rolling out across mobile markets it might not be too far in the future where your mobile becomes the only device that you use to access the internet from every other device in your house, or while you are on the road. Think about it. LTE can offer downlink peak rates of at least 100 Mbit/s, an uplink of at least 50 Mbit/s. In theory you could hook up any internet enabled device to your mobile, that acts as a portable WiFi hotspot, in order to connect you wherever you are! Assuming you are in network coverage ;-). 20Mbit/s should be enough to supply you your HD TV streaming service, and you still have plenty of bandwidth to play Farmville on your PC while you are ignoring the TV. In theory, almost every single one of your data services could be supplied through one mobile phone, that you pretty much well carry everywhere.

Here is the key as well. As you have your phone on you at all times you have all of your services as well permanently with you. So as your phone has a HDMI out socket you can watch your Sky TV anywhere, as your Sky TV account will be linked to your MSISDN as this becomes the distribution mechanism for it! Very cool. At the moment if you go out of your house, bang there goes your Sky viewing. The deal that Sky does with the Mobile network to deliver its content means that the carriers are no longer a dumb bit pipe. They are a bit pipe that makes money from Content Providers. Google will also be lining up to pay to have their services delivered ;-) What’s even better is that on most TV’s in the future you won’t even need your HDMI Out socket on the handset to stream content to them. They will simply hook up wirelessly as well. What’s even better than that is that soon enough your mobile will be able to project a powerful enough image from its built in projector so you won’t even need a TV. Just beam the stream onto a wall. No free wall nearby? Don’t worry just stream the content to your AR glasses via blue tooth. Just don’t do this while walking or driving. It could be hazardous.

Seriously, the options for LTE from a mobile operator are endless. Some of them involve simply being a dumb bit pipe, but hopefully the service fee that a Customer pays to have their Sky HD TV service available where ever they are is distributed between Content Provider and mobile network. When this is done mobile networks can be dumb bit pipes and be proud of it!

The downsides:

• You lose your phone, you are pretty much well stuffed! You should have a backup SIM stored safely somewhere.
• You leave your house and everyone else in the house loses their internet connectivity. Too bad if little Johnny has to finish off his homework while you are on a business trip. I am sure the mobile networks would be smart enough to have some kind of dual SIM such that the one in your phone shares the same account as the one left in a phone, or a fixed device at home ;-)
• Mobile networks will probably cap data usage. This can be currently seen with the initial contracts that are being offered on LTE, The more you pay the higher data speeds you get. OK, but if you cap the usage of data then I am going to be less likely to attempt to use all of my data services as at the end of the week I will probably run out of data! OK to be fair if the network is priced competitively then I will probably be able to tailor my network usage to the correct package ;-).

LTE, if it works to specification, and the network has the appropriate coverage, has a massive amount of potential for both Content Providers and Mobile Networks. Tidy. Very tidy indeed!

Cheers

M

How Much Rain Have You Had?

The difference between rain in the UK and rain in Australia is that in Australia typically you never have enough of it, unless you live in the tropics and have wet seasons! Every drop of rain in Australia seems precious and as a result its reported every time there is one! Every weather forecast I can remember, in Australia, told you the amount or rain that had fallen in various locations around the country. Better than that, they told you how much rain had fallen in different locations around the city you were in. For some reason this became important to me as a kid growing up. It might have had something to do with the fact that I spent 3 years living through at the time was one of the worst droughts on record in a tiny country town that rarely saw water unless it was muddy and gurgled up from a bore hole!

Contrast this to the UK, where apart from the odd summer where it doesn't rain often (with this year thankfully being one of those) it does rain far more often than it does in most parts of Australia. OK so that is stating the bleeding obvious I guess. That being said though the quantity of rain is very rarely reported on the weather. It seems to be enough to say that it will rain at some time in the next 24 hours, but very rarely do they ever say how much it will rain, and even rarer will they tell you how much it did rain in the past 24 hours. Sure if there has been some torrential rain they might mention that it rained 50 mm's in some random place in the past day but rarely will they say this.

I guess it all comes down to the frequency with which rain events happen in the two different countries. It's a given that it will rain on several to seven days on any given week in the UK, however in most places in Australia if it rained on two consecutive days sales of Arc building supplies sky rockets. It's just not as common a phenomenon.

So for the past 10 years I have been stumbling around in the rainfall measuring wilderness, not knowing if I should head to my local DIY store in order to refresh the Arc building supplies, as I simply have never known how much has been raining! Sure I know that something has fallen from the sky but not whether I will have to swim to work the next day!

Finally though I have done something about it. The wilderness has been cleared and I am back in the realms of rainfall civilization as last Monday I was given my very own rain gauge! Tidy! Very Tidy indeed! The above picture shows the top of my shiney new rainfall gauge! You know what though? For the week after I got it it didn't bleeding well rain! I was unable to test it! Typical. Get a rain gauge and it doesn't rain. I think I could start controlling the weather you know. If I bring that rain gauge in over night I bet you it would start to chuck it down!

Finally though last night we got a dousing of the wet stuff, and I am happy to report that in W5 over the course of the evening and night of the 6th of September, we had 11mm of rain. Today (the 7th) we had 1mm further rain until 5pm ;-)

Have fun

m