Mobile Data Technology

Most mobile phone companies now offer mobile data, from basic GPRS access through to the latest multi-megabit mobile broadband services.  Here's a whistle-stop tour of mobile data technology.

2G Networks
Most mobile phone operators have been running 2G (2nd generation) networks for many years.  These networks are very well established and offer the advantage of providing coverage to very wide areas of the country – there’s a good chance of making a phone call in the Scottish highlands using a 2G network.  The disadvantage is that they only offer support for very slow data services, which run at a very similar speed to dial-up internet from the 90s. GPRS GPRS is a 2G data technology, which gives you low-speed access to data on the move.  Typical speeds are around 30Kbps – similar to dial up internet.  The majority of mobile phone companies support GPRS. EDGE EDGE uses 2G networks to improve the speeds offered by GPRS.  If you’re using an EDGE network, you can download at speeds around 100Kbps.  Very few operators support EDGE.  In the UK, O2 is the only operator to support EDGE across their entire 2G network

3G Networks
In the last five years, most European mobile phone companies (and all five UK operators) have been rolling out 3G (3rd generation) networks.  3G networks have been designed from the beginning to support high speed data services, and are used to provide mobile broadband coverage.  The disadvantage is that it’s more expensive for mobile phone companies to build 3G networks and the coverage area provided by 3G isn’t as large as 2G networks.  Therefore, if you’re out in the countryside or even in small towns you may not be in a 3G coverage area and won’t be able to use mobile broadband.

Before buying mobile broadband, you should check that you’re going to receive coverage in the places you’re planning on using the modem.  The coverage maps provided by the phone companies are often an optimistic guide.  Don’t be surprised if a map shows you’re on the edge of coverage, but in real life your modem doesn’t pick up a 3G signal.  Most mobile phone companies give you a 14 day return period after buying your modem – it’s well recommended that you try the modem in as many of your favourite locations as you can during this time to check it’s going to work for you.

R99 (Release 99)
This is the technical name for a plain 3G network that hasn’t been upgraded to support mobile broadband.  It typically provides download speeds of 384Kbps, with upload speeds of 128Kbps.

HSDPA
HSDPA is the technology behind mobile broadband.  It uses the mobile phone operator’s 3G network and give you access to the internet at broadband speeds via a mobile broadband modem.  Most operators today support speeds of 1.8Mbps to 3.6Mbps, with a few (including Vodafone in the UK) supporting speeds of 7.2Mbps.  In the future, HSDPA will support speeds up to 28.8Mbps.

HSUPA
HSUPA compliments HSDPA and provides you with faster upload speeds.  Very few networks currently support HSUPA, and those that do generally run at 2Mbps.  In the next 12 months we’ll start to see networks launching 5.7Mbps services.