I have a question

[GwymWeepa]

It probably has a very simple answer, but I am not sure what it is. Basically, what prevents a console manufacturer from releasing a wireless modem using cell-phone technology so that we could get wireless internet access from anywhere in the country? Is it bandwidth issues? Infrastructure issues? What would be required to make that a reality, and could it be a viable method to provide a broadband service even if someone doesn't have dsl or cable?

 

[jvd]

I'd say cost and performance .


cell phone modems are pretty slow .

Not only that but they aren't tied into an isp . So you get charged for the time from your cell phone company . Not many people would want to have to pay monthly for thier psp to play games like that with people from other parts of the county .


Would you really wnat to play halo 2 on a modem with the speed of around a 14.4kbps modem if not slower ?

 

[Squeak]

The old 2. gen digital network is too slow to be used for online gaming and the 3G subscriptions are still charged per minute. Until that changes it will remain a good but impractical and expensive idea.

 

[GwymWeepa]

Ahh I see.

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

even with the new standards, internet speed still leaves a lot to be desired over the cellular network as most carriers optimize for max call density.

 

[Alejux]

Doesn't 3G cell technology go up to 2MBits/s? Not to mention the 4G which may reach 100MBits, but that will only be in 2010.

 

[wco81]

Doesn't 3G cell technology go up to 2MBits/s? Not to mention the 4G which may reach 100MBits, but that will only be in 2010.

But latency is poor isn't it?

There was just a WSJ story about how ISPs which don't have access to telcos or cable are trying to go to wireless solutions: WiMax and precursors (since 802.16x isn't a standard yet) using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

Not sure if 802.16 will have much better latency performance than mobile over the distances we're talking about.

 

[Alejux]

I heard 802.20 will have <50ms latency. It will be available in 2006 , I think.

 

[PC-Engine]

There's nothing preventing the use of a cellular modem from being designed and used on a console. There are already PCMCIA cellular modems for PCs. Sprint has one for thier highspeed wireless network that you can use with unlimited data access for $100/month. The speed isn't comparable to DSL but comparable to ISDN. In Japan they have higher speeds ~384Kbps.

 

[Fox5]

I'd say cost and performance .


cell phone modems are pretty slow .

Not only that but they aren't tied into an isp . So you get charged for the time from your cell phone company . Not many people would want to have to pay monthly for thier psp to play games like that with people from other parts of the county .


Would you really wnat to play halo 2 on a modem with the speed of around a 14.4kbps modem if not slower ?

Hmm, I had heard that cell phone connections were offering about twice the speed of 56k.

 

[Ty]

This is similar to that silly rumor for the GCN many months ago - which I think turned out to be the Gameboy Player (or whatever it's called, allows you to play your GBA games on your GCN). It was a really silly rumor considering what they were proposing; an adaptor for the GCN that allowed wireless networking (via cellular towers) that created a virtual community of GCNs linked together as a proprietary network (that somehow allowed for the seamless insertion and deletion of these nodes when GCNs were turned on and off).


Btw, whatever happened to that other rumor for the DS? The one started by those ads with the kid in the forest? Rumors back then were GPS, etc.

 

[Teasy]

Btw, whatever happened to that other rumor for the DS? The one started by those ads with the kid in the forest? Rumors back then were GPS, etc

Demasked? ATM nothings happened to it, its still on schedule for an E3 announcement

 

[Ty]

Demasked? ATM nothings happened to it, its still on schedule for an E3 announcement

Is that what it was called? I wonder why they started those ads so early when the didn't do anything with the hype? I figured they did all that work to build up hype leading to E3 but it seems to have died down after all the initial furor.

 

[Teasy]

Originally I think it was supposed to be announced January or February this year. But in November last year the announcement date was changed to E3.. AFAIR anyway.

 

[Ty]

Ah, gotcha. Tks for the update.