Mobile Phones Blog

Industry group takes mobile broadband to new heights

September 30th, 2008 by ellie_mears

Mobile phone companies are joining with chipset and laptop manufacturers to promote integrated mobile broadband support on laptop computers.

The united front of industry giants will build wireless modules into laptops designed to provide fast access to mobile broadband. A “Mobile Broadband” logo (see image) will mark out computers that will accelerate current third generation speeds and are compatible with future fourth generation technology. It is expected that the new laptops will be on the market in 91 different nations before Christmas.

Companies that have joined the alliance include laptop manufacturers Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo as well as 3, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Ericsson, Orange, Qualcomm and Vodafone. The coalition of companies has said it will spend about £554m ($1bn) altogether on promoting the logo and informing customers about laptops fitted with the new technology. The agreement to produce the modules, build them in to laptops and to campaign around the Mobile Broadband logo has been brokered by the GSM Association (GSMA) - a trade body that represents 80% of the world's mobile phone companies.

At present mobile internet technologies including 3G and HSDPA - short for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access - will support download speeds of up to 7Mbps in certain areas of London and in some UK airports. In other areas 3G data speeds are much slower at around 2Mbps.

The beauty of the new technology is its efficiency and instant accessibility to the world wide web, explains Mike O’Hara, a spokesperson for the GSMA:

“You can go to an operator’s store, buy a laptop and it will be already fitted so you can go online instantly. That's a powerful proposition.

“There’s a natural evolution such as we saw with Wi-Fi which at first used to need an external card and became embedded.”

The logo and branding scheme will be highly beneficial for marketing purposes, driving up sales for ISPs and computer manufacturers. Hugh Padfield, principal manager for PC connectivity at Vodafone, said that the deal would “help to create even more momentum than what we have already seen with mobile broadband. It’s reached something of a tipping point even before it’s been built in.”

As well as laptops, mobile broadband technology will soon appear in digital cameras, music players, cars and phones, according to O’Hara at the GSMA.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 12:19 pm and is filed under 3G, Mobile Broadband, Orange, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, Three, Vodafone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.