Internet at sea and in remote areas

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Mark, they've got you confused between protocols, and services.

I'd be surprised if your WCDMA equipment could be used out of Oz waters at all. .

Thats OK, I'm normally confused. LOL

Did you look at the website?
Its really quite importnat to read the website. Its quite an advances sucessful mob on the absolute cutting edge:
HUAWEI.com

I dont know much about techno mumbo jumbo but this mob needs a look at before you think its not happening. And remember the USA is only one country in the world

Its not an australian company.

Mark

[MoonlightShadow]

UK very similar. We pay for "unlimited" data that is "limited" to 4GB etc. Inmarsat is the only truly international one I know, but it's $1 a minute!!! Plus about $6000 to get on line in the first place, offering a stagering bandwidth but delivering about half.

I just looked at Huawei's website and techie stuff Mark, and it confirmed exactly what I expected. I don't understand a word of it.

[DeepFrz]

Interesting. Thanks hs.

About that Motorola v325i. I did a search and found a site that said it was good for CDMA/GSM. Now I can't find it. Oh well. Maybe it was a dream.

But I did find this

http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/s...gsm_phone.html

and more. Do a search on "CDMA/GSM phones"

[hellosailor]

DeepFrz-
You can find anything on the web. However, knowing that 33.5% of all web posts are made by dogs (versus 17% by cats and 23% by folks who think the ESC key will ESChew something) I tend to trust Motorola before anyone else when it comes to tech specs on their own phones. I think "science" reporting ended in the 60's when Jules something-or-other stopped reported on NASA launches for ABC News.

Mark, I did look at Huawei's web site. Seems like just another Chinese tech company pushing their new line of gizmos, albeit translated rather better than most of them. Still a bit unclear about some of the details, but I don't lose much sleep over stuff that's not available to me. Which in the US means anything the cellcos haven't authorized by themselves. Sometimes, I deeply regret not getting involved in phone hacking when it first started. In the US they deserve everything they get, in the name of karma and turnabout being fair play. To think that we went from the proud home of Bell Labs and the finest telco in the world to being a 3rd world contestant in those fields....Well, did I mention getting what they[we] deserve? sigh.

I think it was a good 5/ 8? years ago that Texas Instruments (TI) mentioned developing chipsets that could be programmed for handling multiple protocols, instead of using different daughtercards, so that one phone could be used on 4 different systems. (CDMA and TDMA being 'flavors' of GSM in broad terms.) But like fuel pills and miracle carburetors, the final product never quite made it to market.(G) Actually not the same, most of those were bunk but the electronics were/are real. The problem HERE is that the cellcos have been adamant about not servicing anything that reduces their competitive edge. It is a miracle among 800 pound gorillas that Apple was able to put Wifi in the iPhone and still convince a major carrier to service it.

Somewhere on the web is probably a world map showing which cellular systems are deployed in what areas. Oz, the pacrim, Red China, the US and EU...I suppose a cruiser who wanted to really use it all, would stick to WiFi nearshore, and fall back to satcoms offshore. Or buy one of each and use it as needed. After all, business users should be able to easily afford that hit.

Basic physics makes shortwave or SSB simply unsuitable for any real bandwidth, although Sailmail is still a miracle compared to smoke signals and heliographs. Maybe.(G)

The first time I saw a live webcam uplink FROM ANTARTICA via downlink to NZ and then hardwired into the web, I kinda went into shock for a minute. If McMurdough and Everest are available in realtime....it is a much smaller planet than it was when I was born. I'm not sure I like that. Placing a call from a government post office and waiting an hour for the reply, at $5/minute, was the price you paid for being "abroad".

Or as they say in the Hitckhiker's guide, "Wherever you go, here you are."

[Paul Elliott]

Or as they say in the Hitckhiker's guide, "Wherever you go, here you are."

I think that was from Buckaroo Banzai: "Wherever you go, there you are!"

And no, I have nothing useful to contribute.

[hellosailor]

Paul, I know Buckaroo said it--I *thought* he was doing a candid (so to speak) to the Hitchhiker's Guide.

I'm afraid my Bartlett's is too old to give a source for that one.(VBG)

[Paul Elliott]

Here is the earliest cite I could find:

"So, the cross is always ready and waits for you everywhere. You cannot escape it no matter where you run, for wherever you go you are burdened with yourself. Wherever you go, there you are."
—Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, ca. A.D. 1440

But, I searched the Project Gutenberg version of Imitation, and couldn't find anything resembling this quote. It has also been attributed to Buddah and Confucius, but these references seem to be bogus.

I had no idea!

For what it's worth, I am quite happy with my Iridium satphone for high-seas email, but I would not want to use it for more than a few hundred KBytes a day. I use the Global Marine Networks XGate application for compression and efficient use of the satellite link.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

"GSM/G3 are totally incompatible

Almost all 3G phones are also GSM phones.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Thats OK, I'm normally confused. LOL

Almost all countries have installed GPRS/WCDMA networks but frequencies can vary. Your Huawei GPRS/WCDMA(Aka UMTS) card will work in most countries but on the american continent they may use different frequencies. Check what frequences your card can use.
GSM Coverage Maps has the best information of what is installed where and with coverage maps.
Your current provider may have roaming agreements with forreign operators but it is usually *very* expensive.
Get a new sim in each country instead.

[sandy daugherty]

I'm not sure its true, but I was startled to read that 3G has no technical definition, it just stands for "3rd generation" and is a vague reference to a data rate somewhere around a good dial up connection. Very not exciting. I suspect that we will have to endure the 4th generation (4G) at a "somewhat not exciting" rate before we get to 5G or "ocasionally acceptable".

[Anders]

3G is a name normally used for a UMTS/3GSM/WCDMA system. (Same system, just different names for it.)
UMTS is 384kilobit/s and is much faster than a dialup.
Most UMTS networks and most UMTS modems and some UMTS phones also supports HSDPA. HSDPA is up to (at the moment) 7.2 Mbit/s in the downlink.
In the US there is other competing technologies that are also called 3G such as CDMA2000.
4G also known as Long Term Evolution will support speeds of more than 100 Mbit/s in the downlink and I find that very exciting.

[s/v Jedi]

Well, in Europe 3G is megabit so much more than dialup (kind of like DSL). GPRS is dial-up level. I guess this differs much around the world.

cheers,
Nick.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Anders

Get a new sim in each country instead.

Oh, yes, thats exactly what we intend doing
The Modem would be the expensive bit and we have that

Thats what we do with mobile phones too, just buy a SIM card for call sin each new country. ............ The see which of our 4 or 5 mobile phones works with it!!!!!!!!!