[ILUG] [OT} Mobile Phone/PDA

[Ruairi Newman]

On Mon, 2004-08-30 at 13:48, Timothy Murphy wrote:

> 
> I've been rather disappointed with GPRS.

So have many people.  It was hyped rather a lot.

> (1) It is painfully slow.
> (I wonder if I'm doing something wrong?)
> (2) It is ridiculously expensive.

(1) GPRS is not meant to be a fast, reliable solution to all your
bandwidth needs.  GPRS works by using available GSM timeslots on your
local mast (actually BTS, but lets not get technical about it).  As
mobile phone usage in your cell increases, GPRS capacity goes down, as
voice traffic is ALWAYS given priority.  Oh, and GPRS capacity is
shared, so you are not guaranteed a certain minimum speed even when you
are connected.

(2) There is absolutely no justification for the prices currently being
charged in Ireland (and some other countries, lets be fair) for GPRS
access.  To add GPRS support to the mobile network nationally, costs
less than adding three new masts, INCLUDING consultancy.  Beyond that,
it is ALL pure profit, as GPRS just uses dormant GSM timeslots (as
stated above).

> (3) It is rather complicated to use (with Linux).
> First I have to start Bluetooth,
> then I have to run "rfcomm bind"
> then I have to start pppd
> then I have to look on another window to see if it has worked ...
> (It fails about 40% of the time, for no reason I can understand.)

Failure could be down to insufficient capacity on your local mast. 
Maybe.  Can I see your ppp log?

> Why can't I just click on a button and I'm there?

You could... how's your shell-scripting?  Implement error-checking and
an "auto-retry til connected" option and you're away in a hack.

Rgds,

Ruairí


-- 
Some people are like slinkys - Good for nothing, but you can't help but
smile when they tumble down the stairs.